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.

THEME OF THE DAY. EACH NEW DAY. Today’s scripture is one of the more familiar Old Testament passages many Christians memorize. It is wonderful, encouraging, and makes a soul soar in praise and adoration. I quote it often, but I wonder how often I make it practical in my daily walk with the Lord? How often do you?

The danger with familiar scripture is the ease of quoting it mindlessly and never finding it lived out in the day-to-day struggles of the Christian life. Let’s test my statement. How do we apply today’s scripture? I think there may be multiple ways, but I also believe we may come away with a primary application. But we need to start in the right place. Let’s begin with what the verses tell us about the Lord, not how we apply it. This is extremely important in reading all of scripture. We read to know God, not primarily to get help in a jam; strength in a difficult situation; or even comfort when hurting. Granted God’s Word will do all these, but it wasn’t given to us as a self-help book or some “magical” formula to meet our felt needs and make us feel good. We have our Bibles to know God which then leads to loving and worshipping God. Always open our Bibles with the prayer, “Father, by Your Spirit, please show me the holy beauty of Your Son, the Lord Jesus.” Remember these words of Jesus, “Search the scriptures for they testify of Me” (John 5:39).

So, what do we learn of the Lord in today’s scripture? Four things. His love is unchanging and continual. His mercy knows no limit. His love and mercy “restart” their clocks with every new day dawning. And He will never go back on these promises of steadfast love and ceaseless mercies because of His faithfulness, or trustworthiness. Now, the application, but before we do, let me ask this question . . . “Doesn’t it make all the difference when we meditate upon these verses seeking to know the Lord instead of focusing on ourselves?” It should. We are called to be lost in the holy amazement of who He is far more than we are to seek Him for what He does. Okay . . . the primary application . . .

Think about our daily walks with the Lord. What occurs way too often that discourages us, makes us sad, and may even lead to spiritual depression? What seems to happen in the course of a day that upsets us and may even cause an inward disgust of ourselves? Sin. We sin. A lot. In attitude, action, speech, and motive. We disobey known commands. We lash out with uncontrolled anger and hurtful words to loved ones. We ignore the Word and feast on the world. And at the end of the day, what do we do? We have regrets and seek repentance. I am sure a lot of us go to bed, survey the day, thank God for His care, and then go into a period of confession and repentance for the too many sins of the day. As we do, where do we go with our new act of repentance to find strength to go on and live the Christian life still yet another day? We run to the scripture of today clinging to “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” The greatest application of today’s scripture is in the realm of forgiveness of sin and restoring repentance of those sins. When we sin, what do we need? Assured love of the Lord of His forgiveness; assured mercies of His forgiveness; assured faithfulness He will forgive us; and the reality He will forgive us each day. New repentance always meets each new day with fresh love and mercy. Why? Because God is faithful and delights to display His steadfast love and endless mercies, not once a week, but at the dawn of each morning. And it is His love and mercy we daily need in dealing with our daily sins.

PRAYER: “Lord, I praise You that the well of Your forgiving mercy never runs dry.”

QUOTE: “God’s faithfulness and mercy to us are new every day enabling us to live for Him each day”