Sometimes faith in God can be comforting and reassuring. Sometimes, however, it can be a wild ride.
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, “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the LORD.” The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of 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.
Sometimes faith in God can be comforting and reassuring. Sometimes, however, it can be a wild ride. We see some of this wildness in Lamentations 3, which begins with some of the most painful expressions of pain, with credit given to God. But then, right in the middle of the chapter, there’s a sudden switch. All of a sudden we find hope. Faith is like this sometimes. When we’re on that wild ride, we can be confident that God is watching out for us. We don’t need to be afraid because God is sovereign and God is good.
The opening verses of chapter 3 include some of the most personal, painful laments of the whole book. We read verses like, “[The Lord] made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is” (Lamentations 3:16-17). In utter discouragement, the writer of Lamentations confesses, “Gone is my glory, and all that I had hoped for from the LORD” (3:18). Then he adds, “The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall! My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.” (3:19-20). You just can’t get much lower than this!
But then, as the text rushes at full tilt toward utter despondency, we come upon a stunning change of direction. Verse 21 reads, “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope” (Lamentations 3:21). Wait! Hope? Where did hope come from? Lamentations have been utterly hopeless so far. But now? What? Hang onto your seats, for the shock has just begun.
Following the shocking mention of hope, we read this: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). One minute, the Lord has ground the teeth of the writer into the ground. The next minute, this same writer celebrates the ceaseless love and endless mercies of God. Talk about a wild ride! Surely, Lamentations 3 is one of the wildest rides in the whole Bible.
Have you ever experienced faith as a wild ride? Have you, for example, gone through times of joyful trust in God, only to be turned quickly into doubt and despair? Or perhaps you were sure God was calling you into a certain job or relationship, but for reasons that made no sense to you, what you anticipated didn’t work out. Do you ever find yourself praying like the man who said to Jesus, “I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24)?
If you’ve been on that ride before, you know how crazy it can be. Perhaps you’re on that kind of ride right now. Or maybe you will be in the future. No matter when it comes, you should know that what you’re experiencing is common to God’s faithful people, like the writer of Lamentations, for example.
You should also know that, no matter how wild the ride might seem, God is in control. God is, as we’ll see in more detail in tomorrow’s devotion, utterly faithful and worthy of our trust.
Therefore, we do not need to be afraid no matter how scary things might seem.
As crazy as it might be sometimes, we don’t have to be afraid because we know God is sovereign, and God’s steadfast love never ceases. God’s mercies never come to an end.
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