By Julian Wells

“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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.” (Lam. 3:21-23 NIV)

The fact that these familiar verses are found in a book whose title, Lamentations, means “funeral songs” speaks volumes. In the midst of seemingly unbearable sorrow, Jeremiah never took his eyes off of The Lord, in whom he found hope and comfort.

Even as the smoke was still rising from the ashes of Jerusalem, he chose to focus on God’s unfailing love, compassion, mercy, and faithfulness. As believers in a sovereign God, these are his unchanging attributes that sustain us through our darkest hours.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, acts with a hand that never fails.”

How can we not trust a God like that?

And just as Jeremiah’s testimony in the Book of Lamentations still ministers to us today, our trust in God in the midst of the inevitable trials of life is perhaps the most powerful testimony we can offer to a world in such need of the hope only God can provide.

“Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see;

All I have needed Thy hands have provided.

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!”

(Lyrics by Thomas Obediah Chisholm)