"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 3:22-23
Sometimes I feel like I might be swallowed up.
By grief.
By heartache.
By hard things.
By hateful people.
By all of the worst possible possibilities.
Yet…I am not consumed.
Why? Because love.
Because the God of all things, God himself, he loves me. And his love is a massive, all-encompassing, bigger-than-all-my-problems love—powerful to rescue me out of despair with limitless compassion. How many times has he rescued me with his love? How many more times will he? As many as I need. And each time I claim these truths as my own:
“Because of the Lord’s great love, I am not consumed.”
I cling to my God as I say these words. They tether me to him through each and every difficult season. Yet as beautiful and true as this promise is when I have problems, its truest truth reaches deeper still.
Because sometimes, I am the problem.
I’m the one who’s hateful. My own heart is the hard thing. I rigidly hold onto my way. I recklessly run into sin. I refuse to forgive. I hurt people. I even hurt God (yes, it’s possible). And I find myself distant and distraught, sitting in the consequences of my wrongs. When I’m the problem, what then?
God’s compassion never fails…still.
The God who loves me when life is hard, loves me still when I am hard. The God who is always faithful is faithful still—even when I am faithless. And these words that restore my wounded heart are the very words that restore my wounding heart. They reach down deeper than the place of sorrow and into my shame and sin to lead me back to my kind God.
How do I know?
I’ve seen it. It’s all modeled right there in the fuller story surrounding our verse (listen to this week’s podcast episode for more). God’s people aren’t crying out to God for his love and compassion because they’ve been wronged, but because they are wrong. Lamentations is their weeping confession and raw response to all of the consequences they’ve endured because of their sin. And our verses are the words of God’s rebellious people crying out to him. This is a paraphrase of their hopeful confession:
“Because of who you are, we know you will save us. We don’t appeal to our own good character, but to yours. Because of your great love, you will not let us be consumed by all the consequences of our sin. We know that your compassion never fails. Even now. It is new each morning. Even this morning. We claim your faithfulness—nothing we could do could alter who you are. And so we rely on your love, compassion, and faithfulness. Even and especially now. We need it desperately.”
This is my own confession too.
Just this morning I read God’s own thoughts about this same story of rebellion and restoration. I was struck by what he says to his sinful children in Ezekiel 16:62-63. He says that he will pay the price for all of their sin, and they will remember what he will do for them and they will be confounded and shut their mouths. He’s talking about Jesus and his future payment for all sins with his life. And here’s what struck me: all of my own sin. And when I remember what Jesus has done, I really am confounded by his love and sacrifice. I have no words. I can only shut my mouth. Yet when I finally open it again, I cannot help but confess with every other sinner, past and present:
"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 3:22-23
This is my hope—the only hope for all of us sinners. Our salvation depends on a God whose love is massive. We will never be consumed, not even by our own sin. Because his compassion never fails. Truly, his faithfulness is great.
