“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet, this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning: great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:19-23) (NIV)
Do we have thoughts or memories that bring us down? Sometimes a lot of us do. When we have them we need to take Jeremiah’s counsel to focus on the Lord and all he has done for us.
I write this as I pray about a circumstance within a friend’s family that may cause problems in other family members’ lives. I have been told of the need in confidence. Therefore, I must pray hard for this clan.
People usually focus on the last part of this passage. We hear the part about the Lord’s great love and how great His faithfulness is. For some reason we don’t focus on the first part.
A large group of our society deals with anxiety, hopelessness, and depression. We do what we can to compensate for our outlook. People not afflicted with these issues don’t know how to react to those who are.
Jeremiah’s words of wisdom are simple. He does this himself. He remembers the fact that God loves him, and shows great kindness to him, He does this each day. These memories bring hope to Jeremiah’s downcast heart.
Can we adopt his practice of focusing on the Lord’s goodness to us, especially when we have issues in our lives that seem to pull us down? We might want to list what He does for us and keep it where we can find it.
Thanks so much for your prayers! Doug and I are a little better each day. This respiratory bug is a real bad guy!
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andrea
Thank you for this post, sweet friend! It is funny how you can read a book of the bible several times but there are always parts you seemed to never remember. I am going to write this one down & be sure to read and take the whole part to heart!
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