a.
“Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.”
b.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord”, (Lamentations 3:19-26).
5.
The contrast between verses 18 and verses 21-22 could not be greater.
a.
The author’s self-pity and self-centeredness dissipates.
b.
He begins to turn his attention first to the next generation as shown in (verses 40 – 47).
c.
And then he turns his attention to community as written in (verses 48 – 66).
6.
What the author comes to know in chapter 3 is that the Lord prefers to show mercy.
a.
It is the Lord's terrors that are only for a moment.
b.
Therefore, the immediate events that he is facing are the abnormality, not the days of grace and mercy because they are not for only a moment.
c.
He realizes the Lord had shown great mercy in the past and that He will show great mercy in the future.
d.
This, by the way, is exactly what Jesus demonstrated during His earthly ministry.
1)
Although He never compromised His message and never glossed over sin, he always welcomed a sinner in need of mercy and forgiveness.
2)
Lamentations 3 gives us a core truth. That truth is that though champions fall, they can rise again.
7.
There is a way you may be able to connect with this further. Listen closely and follow these instructions.