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God's Never-ending Love

Lamentations 3:22-23

One of the most appealing things about the Bible is that it portrays humanity as real people—the people in the Bible talk and act just as we do. For instance, they use the same "word games" we do: "Things will be better tomorrow," or "You'll see things differently in the morning." While it's true that a good night's sleep can help make us more perceptive, nothing magical happens when the sun comes up. It's simply a way of dividing time into days—a useful way of acknowledging the rhythms and cycles of life.

The prophet Jeremiah talked this way in Lamentations 3:22-23: "[God's] compassions fail not. They are new every morning." God doesn't restart His compassion engine when the sun comes up. "New every morning" is simply a way of saying that God's compassion is always on; there is never not a time when God is not compassionate. Like right now, at this moment, God is loving, merciful, and compassionate toward you. And He will be that way while you sleep and still be that way when you arise. These are attributes of God that do not fade with the setting of the sun.

Jeremiah was reminding the nation of Judah of this.Even in the midst of their sin, and the Babylonian judgment coming upon Jerusalem, it was "through the Lord's mercies that [they were] not consumed" (Lamentations 3:22). Mercy means not receiving something bad even when we deserve it. Judah was being disciplined, but not being consumed: "For I am the Lord, I do not change: therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob" (Malachi 3:6).

Even in the midst of challenging circumstances—like when we sin, and know we have sinned, and deserve discipline—God's loyal love and His mercy never fail: "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8).

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