Not Consumed

Lamentations 3:21-23 "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."

Where do you find your hope? Do you find it in the outfit that makes you look ten pounds lighter? The team who wins the most games? The president? Our nation? It seems that oftentimes I find myself putting my hope in something temporary rather than putting my hope, my trust, in the very One who created us. I find myself thinking that I can handle it all on my own, so I put my hope in the things of this world instead of the Maker of the world.

Lately, though, we as a nation have struggled, and many people are wondering, “Where do we go from here?” The economy continues to worsen; many have lost their jobs; the values around us seem to be changing right before our eyes. Sometimes it seems that there is no end in sight,—or at least not a good one--and it can become overwhelming. It can even begin to consume us. We begin to see that the temporary hope that we have found truly isn’t lasting, and it can cause us to fear. However, as we see in the above verses, we have a reason for eternal hope, and we have Someone to put our hope in. Those of us in Christ can rest in the fact that God’s love is great and because of this great love, we are not consumed. The economy cannot consume us; sickness cannot consume us; even death cannot consume us. Instead, we can be consumed by the Lord’s love for us. Everything else may fade away, but the Lord’s compassions never fail. Whereas we as humans fail on an almost daily basis, God never does. He is forever on our side, by our side, and He wants us to remember that He is faithful and that we in turn should be faith-full.

I pray that today each of us might call this to mind and therefore have hope; that we might remember that our hope is found in the Lord; and that we might be consumed not by the things of this world but by the One who spoke it into being.



*First printed November 19, 2008 for FBC Women