Hope

Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day. I say to myself, "The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!" Lamentations 3:23-24 NLT

I've kind of used this definition of hope in recent years:

Hope--the belief that tomorrow will be worth waking up for.

The verse above was written by the prophet Jeremiah during a very desperate time. Jerusalem was destroyed. The people of Babylon had taken most of its citizens into captivity. Others they had tortured or killed. And Jeremiah had been a witness to it all. In the midst of all this, Jeremiah's tears came easily and often. These were not tears from his own selfish desires. Rather, it was grief over the heart ache and destruction that lay all around Jeremiah. So, he wept and grieved for his people.

Then...he remembered this ray of hope. He remembered the presence of a God who never leaves. He remembered the comfort of a God who loves very deeply. Without God's mercy, Jeremiah understood that things would have been much worse and there would have been no hope for change.

In those desperate moments that roar into our lives, we must remember what Jeremiah recalled. Only God can deliver or heal or bring the change we seek. Without Him, there is no comfort, no peace or no hope for the future. And because of Christ's appearance almost 600 years later, you and I have a hope that is even more personal than Jeremiah's.

I don't know what has you frustrated or discouraged today. I don't know what serves as the source for your tears. But there is hope--real hope--that is found in this relationship with God. Don't let your circumstances keep you from seeing what God has for you. His mercies do, indeed, begin anew every day. Place your hope in that.