Skip to main content

New Every Morning

             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. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

 

The past few days have been tough. It’s not just that work is demanding right now. It’s also that I’ve been feeling challenged to consider how my patterns of behavior with other people isn’t as it should be. That opens up old wounds and dredges up monsters. And while that may be a good thing because God can deal with them best when they’re out in the open, it hurts.

Today’s passage is vital. The pain may seem more than we can bear, but we have a promise. It won’t consume us. It is not the end. And many pictures come to mind, of parents with new infants, caregivers and those for whom they care, of pet owners, farmers, and even workers who get up every morning and go out and do all over again all of the boring, messy, unpleasant things that they did the day before. And somehow, they do it without losing their tempers or their minds – at least most of the time.

This is the image of God – the Caregiver who comes in each morning (or each moment) and faces the same bring, messy, unpleasant things we should have overcome years ago. We may throw temper tantrums, or even suffer from spiritual dementia that leads us to forget who He is, but He comes and He does it all again without resentment.

This isn’t to say that our repeating bad behaviors is OK. It’s not permission to be abusive. But when we find ourselves coming back with the same old issues, problems, hurts, and sins, and it seems like we’re never going to change, it may help to know that God is also not going to change. He’s going to take care of us in the midst of all of the boring, messy, unpleasant things that are our current experience. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more