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Many on the news and internet are speaking of very difficult times coming for those of us in the western hemisphere. Those in the east have been experiencing difficult times for decades, and we need to remember them in our prayers. Whether it be the Uyghurs in China or believers in North Korea, there have been difficult times for many that we in the west simply can not imagine.

Difficult times are not a recent development for believers, or have not been experienced by believers before. Difficult times are what this post is about. A specific difficult time, in the days of Jeremiah.

With all that said, I want to recount last Sunday during worship service, where the church was led through the great hymn – Great is thy Faithfulness. As we sang this hymn, it occurred to me that this truth was taken from Jeremiah’s pen, when he wrote it in the saddest book of the Bible.

Lamentations 3

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

Lamentations is a book describing the horrors of a war with the Babylonians, and the eventual conquering of the nation of Israel. The Babylonians defeated the nation of Israel, destroyed the city of David, desecrated the temple, and was deporting all those Israeli’s that had not yet been murdered.

Get a grip on that my friend. Jeremiah saw the temple go down and the people of God decimated, with the land becoming barren, and in the end, he was hated by those few that remained.

And yet he declared

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end.

In Jeremiah’s eyes there must have been nothing but discouragement, disappointment, and despair. Yes – he had been promised the nation would rise up again, but that would be seven decades later.

Yet Jeremiah wrote.

his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;

The nation had been corrupt, the priesthood had been compromised and was worse than the neighboring heathen. The people sinned and blamed everyone else for the nations condition. No one was following the Lord, but only following their own desires and wants. There was no earthly help for the nation, for the people who made up the nation were sick, nearing death and had refused any spiritual help.

And yet Jeremiah penned the great passage

they (God’s mercies) are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

In the midst of trials, difficult times and possible future devastation in our lives, let us practice this discipline of Jeremiah, recognizing the mercies of God in our lives, and realizing His faithfulness to us.

He truly is good, and He is good all the time!

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