Hope Begins When You Remember

Lamentations 3:19-24 – “Remember my afflictions and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’”

 Jeremiah spent his entire adult life being used by God to attempt to get the people in Judea and particularly living in Jerusalem to repent of their idolatry and wickedness and turn back to God. Though they rebelled against Him, God still loved Israel and tried every way possible to reach their hearts and save them from the horrible punishment that awaited them.

But their hearts were hard and they rejected God’s attempts to draw them to Him, they rejected God’s prophet, and they even persecuted Jeremiah and tried to kill him.

Here in the book of Lamentations all of God’s wrath on the wickedness of Israel has finally come upon them and it has been terrible. One of the amazing things in all this is that Jeremiah is not cheering at the destruction of the people who tormented him and caused him so much grief while he was only doing God’s will. Jeremiah had God’s love for Israel. He is so full of sorrow for the destruction of the rebellious people of God that he writes a five-chapter book pouring out his crushing grief and sorrow.

It had to be especially hard for Jeremiah because he devoted his life to ministering to the people of Israel and, as far as we know, only Baruch, his servant and possibly Ebed-melech in Jeremiah 38:7-13 were the only ones whom he reached. That’s not a very good success rate.

My point is that Jeremiah has a lot to grieve over. The first two and a half chapters of the book of Lamentations is absolutely heartbreaking as Jeremiah describes the depth of his sorrow. He sounds almost completely hopeless until he remembers who God is in the verses quoted above.

Jeremiah reminds himself that God’s amazing love is steadfast and NEVER CEASES.

He remembers that the mercies of God, i.e. God not giving us what we deserve, are NEW EVERY MORNING.

And he remembered that God’s faithfulness is GREAT!

A small beam of light of the truth of God pierced Jeremiah’s dark night of the soul and that reminded the prophet that he wasn’t in this alone. The Lord was his portion. In other words, God was with him, actually God had never left him. And because of this truth, Jeremiah was motivated to renew his hope in God.

Jeremiahs circumstances hadn’t changed, but when he remembered who God was for him, Jeremiah’s perspective and outlook changed and he had HOPE.

Do you know what hope is? It’s not like “I hope so” or “maybe it will happen”. That’s not biblical hope. That kind of hope gives no real encouragement.

God’s hope is confident anticipation.

Real hope is being unquestionably secure in the knowledge that what God said is going to happen will absolutely happen—you just don’t know when.

Notice also that Jeremiah said, “therefore, I WILL hope in Him.”

This kind of confidence in God’s words and promises is an act of our will. We decide if we are going to hope in God, and that decision is based on believing the truth about God.

“The steadfast love of the L0rd NEVER CEASES…EVER!

His mercies NEVER COME TO AN END…EVER!

God’s faithfulness is GREAT…ALWAYS!”

Whatever you situation may be, it can’t be any worse than Jeremiah’s. So do what he did.

Trust in who God is… and chose HOPE!