Forgiveness

Great is Your Faithfulness

Lamentations 3:22-23: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Such a beautiful pair of verses. Look at the words that describe God's consistency: "steadfast", "never come to an end", "new every morning", and "faithfulness". All of these words show how consistent God is towards his children.

What is steadfast about God? His love.

What never comes to an end? His mercies

What are new every morning? His love and mercy.

What is great about our God? His faithfulness.

You know what's awesome about these verses? They are not just isolated verses that say nice, happy smiley-face things about God. These are not verses that are simplistic and say clap-clap, yay, Jesus is cool. These verses are very hardcore. They are amazingly deep and life-changing.

Suffering

If you read the verses before these verses, you'll see how chapter 3 starts out.

Let me give you some samples of what's going on in Lamentations 3.

Lamentations 3:1-3 say, "I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long."

Then, Lamentations 3:4-6 say, "He has made my flesh and skin waste away; he has broken my bones; he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation; he has made me dwell in darkness like the dead of long ago."

Suffering Ultimately Comes from God

This servant of God cries out because of his great suffering. And who is ultimately responsible for this suffering? God. The "he" in all those verses refers to God himself. The servant knows that even though he makes choices on his own and people hurt one another, ultimately God is still in control of the entire world. God is King over this universe, and every event that occurs was ultimately his desire. Nothing happens by accident; nothing happens unexpectedly for God. God is fully aware and fully in control.

God does not cause us to sin, and God never forces us to make bad decisions. But he knows everything we'll do even before we do it, and so he's prepared to make his plan still work through all of our decision-making. That's how powerful he is. He gave us free will to make choices, and yet he accomplishes his ultimate will despite our bad decisions. Somehow, whatever God wants to happen in this universe will happen even though he doesn't force us to make particular choices. We are not robots; we are not puppets. We are thoughtful creatures that decide many things for ourselves. At the same time, however, God is not just an observer of the world. God is not merely some fortune-teller who can see the future but do nothing about it. No. God sees the future and God makes the future.

This servant, therefore, in Lamentations 3:1-6 and many more verses after says that God himself is ultimately responsible for even his suffering. God created the world in such a way that the servant would one day endure hardships and the servant knows this.

Salvation Certainly Comes from God

But in v.21, you see a dramatic shift in his attitude and his language: "But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

vv.22-23: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; there are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Even though this servant knows that suffering ultimately comes from the hand of God, he also knows that unfailing love and mercy also comes from

...