Our theme for this month: “Mistakes”
Our Bible verse for today: “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! I say: The Lord is my portion, therefore I will put my hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for deliverance from the Lord.” Lamentations 3:22-26 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “It is a mistake to give up hope.”
Life can sometimes land us in strange places. Many times we find ourselves wondering, “How did I get here, how did this happen?” Sometimes our regrettable situations are a result of our own mistakes and poor decisions. At other times we find ourselves the innocent victim of someone else’s unjust actions. And sometimes it’s just life. Sometimes our trials and struggles come upon us simply because this is a broken world filled with sickness and death and natural disasters and economic recessions.
The temptation during such times is to lose hope – especially if the difficulties drag on for an extended period of time. But losing hope is always a mistake; that’s especially true for the child of God. Death and destruction, divorce and despair, unemployment and hard times, are never the end of the story. God always has a plan and it is always good. Even in the midst of trials and sufferings God is at work to bring about some good thing for those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
When Jeremiah wrote Lamentations the city of Jerusalem had been destroyed, the people had been taken off into captivity, the brutal army of the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar was in total control, and the future looked bleak. But that was not the end of the story. The truth was that God’s mission, and God’s people, would rise again.
The same is true for us. Regardless of how bleak the current circumstances may look, regardless of how big the challenges are or how high the hurdles seem, the truth is that God isn’t done. His mission and His people will rise again. At the present time the “when” and “how” of it all may have to remain questions for tomorrow; your approach for the moment may be to simply be faithful, to trust in the Lord, and to just keep putting one foot in front of the other as you continue to walk through it. That’s ok because God will give us the grace we need for today. And then He’ll do it again tomorrow, and the day after that and the day after that.
Eventually the entire story will have unfolded and we will be able to view it all from hindsight. And when we do, we will discover that Jeremiah was correct, “Because of the Lord’s faithful love we do not perish, for His mercies never end.”
It is always a mistake to give up hope.
God Bless,
Oak Hill Baptist Church 