Faithfulness | Daily Devotional

It’s not for nothing that we refer to Jeremiah as “The Weeping Prophet.” 

Born and raised on the brink of calamity, Jeremiah’s life’s calling was threefold. First, he was to warn God’s people to turn from their sin, which is summarized in Jeremiah 2 as an idolatrous rejection of God—the “fountain of living waters”—in exchange for the busted and cracked water jugs of false gods.

Tragically, God’s people continued in their rebellion despite Jeremiah’s warnings, which led to his second message: God was sending unspeakable disaster to His stiff-necked people in the form of a barbaric, ruthless enemy Babylon, who would enslave His people for 70 years. 

As Jerusalem was overtaken, the devastation was so complete that “the victims of the sword” were “happier” than “the victims of hunger.” Even “compassionate women have boiled their own children” for food. Amid the carnage, there was no need for media spin or debate about what had taken place. This was as bad as things could possibly be.

Lamentations 3:16-18 describes the state of Jeremiah’s soul:

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

    and made me cower in ashes;

 my soul is bereft of peace;

    I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, “My endurance has perished;

    so has my hope from the Lord.”

A very precious promise

Yet, even as the bearer of such bad news, Jeremiah was also given a third message that he was to deliver through his tear-drenched, bloodshot eyes: Through it all, God would remain faithful.

Against the pitch-black backdrop we found in the previous verses of Lamentations 3, we get a burst of blinding daylight in the following lines: 

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

    the wormwood and the gall!

My soul continually remembers it

    and is bowed down within me.

But this I call to mind,

    and therefore I have hope:

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 Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

    “therefore I will hope in him.” (3:19-24)

A very practical promise

Do you feel that God has somehow forgotten you? Are you tempted to think that—since you still find yourself single, or in the midst of a hard marriage, or facing a hard physical diagnosis, or demoted at work—that God is nowhere to be found? 

Has your latest episode of giving into sinful temptation left you wondering if God’s promises—to deliver you from evil, free you from sin’s bondage, and give you a new heart—just aren’t enough?

Brothers and sisters, look to Jesus, who “is faithful over God’s house as a son.” The Lord Jesus was faithful unto the point of death. That means He didn’t just identify with the depths of suffering Jeremiah described, He endured the far deeper misery of being completely cut off from the land of the living, banished from perfect communion with God the Father.

A very faithful Savior

And He did all this for us. In our place. On our behalf. For our sin. There is no dark place we can go, no gloom we can fall into, no terror that can overtake us, where our God has not already been. 

What does it mean that our God is faithful? For believers, we find our answer in Romans 8:35-39:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?  As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Father, thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you never break your promises, but always keep every one of them in your perfect timing. You know everything, you control everything, and nothing whatsoever poses a barrier to you keeping your promises right on schedule. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are faithful over God’s house as a son. You endured the utter depths of grief, sorrow, and anguish so that I could be forgiven of the very sin that nailed you to the cross. Holy Spirit, guide me into greater faith, deeper worship, and total reliance upon your great faithfulness today.