Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” This episode is about God's Love and Mercy. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Click Here to join the 10 week "Be More Like Jesus" Challenge
God’s Love and Mercy Are Never Ending
Lamentations 3:22-23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Today’s verse mentions love and mercy again. I find it fascinating how God keeps telling us the same things over and over again and yet it is so hard for us to hear Him, for us to really hear Him. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. I just looked up the word steadfast as I really wanted to understand what this verse was saying. According to the internet steadfast means resolutely or dutifully firm and unwavering. This verse is saying that God’s love, which is unwavering never ceases. Have you ever had love that was unwavering before?
I know some people have had great examples of love over the years. I also know that some of you haven’t. Some of you were promised unwavering love that never ceases from your spouse and then they left you and took their love with them. This is devastating to a person and if this has happened to you, then I am sorry. Love is not supposed to be like that. The love that we are capable of having and giving here on earth can be flawed. We are an imperfect people living in a broken world. Sometimes love gets caught up in that brokenness. I don’t think anyone enters marriage with the intention of breaking their vows. I think when they enter marriage, they truly mean all that they say. However, then our brokenness enters and we lose our way.
If you have not had any examples of steadfast love before then it may be hard to believe that God’s love is unwavering. It may also be hard to believe that is never ceases. I know I have said this before, and God has said this before, and that is because everyone is still not hearing it. There is nothing you could even do that would cause God’s love to stop. God has always loved you and will always love you. His love never ceases! Its always there and all we have to do is choose to accept it. Yes, it is a choice. I am not saying it is an easy choice. If you have been through a lot and it’s difficult for you to feel loved or accept love then I am not saying this will be easy. I am saying it’s possible though. If you make a choice that you want to let God’s love in then just tell Him and give Him permission to help you make it happen.
Next in the verse it says, “His mercies never come to an end;” Can you imagine that . It might take a minute or two to wrap your head about that. God’s mercies never come to an end. What does that mean? It means that God will never stop forgiving you. Earlier I said there is nothing you can do that could make God stop loving you, well, now He is saying the same thing for His mercy. I think sometimes we think that God is going to get tired of all of our nonsense and He will just give up on us. We think His mercy will end and He will just end us, like He did when He flooded the earth. However, if you know that story, then you know how it ended. It ended with God promising, actually it was even more than a promise, it was a covenant between God and Noah and all the generations to come. God promised He would never do that again.
I am sure God probably gets tired of our constant messing up. I am sure He probably gets tired of the way we treat Him and the way we continue to sin with little repentance. He is probably up in Heaven shaking His head and rolling His eyes. I wonder if there are times when He regrets that covenant He made with Noah. However, He did make that covenant and we don’t have to worry about Him destroying the world. But even better than that, we don’t have to worry about His mercy running out. His mercies never come to an end. It will always be there.
Great, so does this mean we can do as we please and ignore all He tells us to do, because His mercy will always be there for us? No, not at all, God is merciful and He is also just. He gave us free will and He allows us to use it. However, because we have free will it makes the decision to follow God all the more special. There are also consequences if we do not follow the laws that God has set our for us. He wants us all to be saved. He wants us all to spend eternal life with Him up in Heaven. However, He is not going to force that on us. He is going to let us make our choices. If we choose to go against the ways that God teaches us to live then He will allow us to do that, but we will be choosing the consequences that go along with those choices.
The verse ends with “They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” God is so great. Not only does His love and mercy never go away, but they are new every morning. Every morning when you wake up God renews His love and His mercy. He is so faithful. He never leaves us alone. He is with us each and every day. If that is not something to be grateful for, I don’t know what is. This is another great verse to remember when you start to lose hope. Its a good one to write it down and put it where you will see it often. Its a good one to memorize so when you’re struggling you can recall it without much effort. Its a good one to keep in your back pocket for a friend when they need to hear it. “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Dear Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that your love and mercy are with us forever. We are thankful that they are new each morning. Lord, help us to love others as you love us. Help us to be merciful with others are you are merciful with us. Lord Jesus you are amazing and we love you. We ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus holy name, amen.
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. And thank you to those that have already signed up to walk with me in these next 10 weeks to grow more like Jesus. I am excited to take that adventure with you and I will be sending out the first email in a few days. If you have not signed up yet, I will put a link in the show notes. (click here) If you didn’t catch yesterdays episode, I will be spending the next 10 weeks trying to grow more like Jesus. Each week we will take one character trait and try to grow more in that trait. I will send an email out each week so we can all work on the same trait and also there will be a link for a zoom call for those that would like to meet and talk about how it is going. I look forward to spending time with you tomorrow. Have a blessed day!