You Are Given A New Day
Have you had a bad day lately? Have you ever laid in bed after a bad day and wished you could have started the day over? You may read those questions and say, "Bad is an understatement."
Over the past two weeks, we have studied how people responded to low points. We have seen that God often breaks people to help them learn. God puts us in situations that cause us to depend on Him so we might learn not to trust in our power but in His.
Would you like to be told by God, "You are to speak my message to an entire nation, but no one will listen to you?" Being faithful to God's message would be hard if I knew no one was listening to me when I shared it. Thankfully, Jeremiah was loyal to God when God told him to speak His message to a sinful nation.
Jeremiah spoke God's truth when evil people were overtaking the people of Israel. Evil forces always seemed to prosper while God's people suffered. Jeremiah was hurt for the people. The toll of seeing wicked people take over cities and kill innocent people weighed heavily upon Jeremiah. Even though Jeremiah knew God was faithful, he still cried out to God. We often do the same thing. We have heard sermons on God's faithfulness and have even seen how good God can be to us. But when we see wickedness prosper, we cry out to God and ask Him why.
Jeremiah wrote the Book of Lamentations to cry out to God as he watched the Babylonians overtake Jerusalem. It was Jeremiah's way of expressing agonizing pain to God. Even though Jeremiah was crying out, or lamenting, to God, he remembered God's faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23 (NIV) says,
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.
What do you do when you are at a low point after a bad day? First, cry out to God. Express your hurts and pains. Tell God how you feel. He listened to Jeremiah, and He will listen to you. Second, remember that God's mercies are new every morning. Jeremiah reminds us of this truth and encourages us to trust in God's great faithfulness. Every day you wake up, count it as a blessing because God has given you new mercies. God has given you a new opportunity.
I struggle to write this because I dwell on my mistakes and let them define me. When I do this, I find myself at a low point. But when I focus on God's mercies each day, I remember that He is faithful in using my mistakes or bad days for His glory. You may have had a low point lately, but God's mercies are new daily.