Great is thy faithfulness

I've been camping out in Lamentations 3 for about a week now. Well, actually I've been studying the whole book with our ladies' bible study, but if you've ever read Lamentations, it's not super pleasant to dwell on much besides chapter 3! Jeremiah does some serious lamenting, both personally & for Israel as a nation, in this short book of the Bible. I am struck by his honesty, and I love it actually. It is always so refreshing to be reminded that God does not want us to act like we are fine all the time when we come to him. It is so tempting to do that, because we sort of just fall into that in our human nature. Our typical greeting to each other as we pass by is usually a "how are you?" with a quick reply of "doing fine, thanks" or something similar, even if we are in reality on the brink of breaking because of the many burdens weighing on our hearts. We (or I) sort of feel like we have failed or are doing something wrong if we are not fine, if we don't have it all pretty much together pretty much all of the time. But God wants our honest hearts. He knows our true feelings anyway, so why not bring them to Him in humility and surrender? He really cares. He can take our honesty!

And the awesome part is that if we will call this to mind [a true act of the will for me at times] we can 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 3:21-23

I've been reminded that despite how some days in my little life I feel quite consumed, I actually am not. Some days when the burdens are great--when it seems like there is just so much to pray for, so much hurt in so many lives...we are not consumed. In the big and little He remains faithful. His mercies are new every single day. No matter what I fear or am anxious about or burdened by; even despite what I just feel inconvenienced by in this life...Great is thy faithfulness.

So that is what I am encouraged about and thankful for this week. Nothing monumental or super insightful...just this simple reminder. I just felt it was right to share it today.