My hope for these weekly blogs is that they would always be transparent and relatable. Transparency in church culture is sometimes hard to come by because we’re worried we will be judged if everything isn’t perfect in our lives. If there is a struggle, then it must mean our walk with God isn’t strong or we aren’t trusting Him enough. As my very good friend Dallas pointed out to me today, though, we aren’t a church culture; we’re a Kingdom culture.
In saying that, please allow me to be transparent with you when I say that I did not want to write this blog. I cried tears over this blog because the promise is a hard one and one that a lot of us know all too well. This week’s promise is found in Lamentations 3:22-23 (NKJV), and it says, “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” When you first read this promise, it sounds uplifting, and it’s hard to figure out why it could be intimidating to some. I love what Dallas said in the podcast, though, “If you don’t have context, you’re going to be conned by the text.” When these verses are read in context, they are surrounded by suffering. The author is recounting God’s goodness in trying to remind themselves that even though they have gone through long-sufferings and gotten close to being consumed, God is always faithful and has never allowed them to be completely consumed. He is reminding himself that with God, there is always HOPE.
As people, we often go through a lot of hardships in life, and as Christians, we often try to cover these hardships and put our “happy face” on. One of my favorite questions from this week’s message was, “why would we need a healer if there was nothing to heal?” Think about that for a second; I know I had to! If our lives as Christians were sunshine and rainbows, why would we need God? How would we know of His faithfulness if there were never any situations for Him to be faithful over? These were just a few of the hard questions I had to ask myself over and over after Sunday.
“Through the Lord’s mercies, we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.” Friend, I hope that when you read this week’s promise, you read it in the context it was written in. There will always be hard times. Highs and lows. Ups and downs. Sometimes you may have to sit and recall the times God has shown up and shown out in your life and the story that came after the suffering but remember…He will NEVER allow you to be completely consumed. His love and compassion does not fail. He is always faithful.