Lamentations 3:19-24| I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 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. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope – Lamentations 3:21
As a child, I remember older leaders praying each Sunday as worship began. Their prayers addressed “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” It would be years before I knew they were praying to the One who could be trusted because of His record of faithfulness. This phrase, “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,” testified of the Promise Keeper, faithful to those biblical patriarchs. And He was faithful to their wives, including Sarah, Rebecca, and Rachel, and to everyone in their tribes. Faithful to the older leaders and the church communities.
Scripture shows God repeatedly calling the Israelites to remember. He who was faithful to Abraham is the same God who saw a mistreated Hagar as she wept in the desert (Genesis 16:7; 21:16). And who heard the Israelites as they cried out in bondage (Exodus 3:7). This is the same heavenly Father who sees and hears us. He invites us to remember, calling to mind His character, because our hope is restored through remembering.
Hope is our confident expectation that God will be faithful just as He always has been. Remembering builds our inner strength as we trust in His faithfulness to us before, after, and when He hears our cries. Whether in the midst of a personal or global crisis, even when life doesn’t make sense, if we can pause and remember the truth about God, we can have hope.—Joe Ella Darby
How has God been faithful to you? How does remembering God’s faithfulness restore your hope that God is still able and willing to work on our behalf?
God, allow me to remember all the times when You have been faithful. As I remember, restore my hope and strengthen me.