In your hurt, you are never out of reach of your Healer.
“His mercies begin afresh each day.” Lamentations 3:23 NLT.
There are times when you just cannot wait for the day to be over. Schedules weary you; problems worry you. You just want to go to sleep and wake up to a better time. But there seem too many days are much the same as another. Maybe Jeremiah felt a little like that. He wrote a small book – just five chapters – that he called “Lamentations,” meaning “complaint or mourning.” Jeremiah, often called the weeping prophet, ministered when Israel was in captivity as God had forewarned of judgment upon the nation’s sinful disregard of His Law and Lordship.
Jeremiah laments the national destruction Israel’s spiritual rebellion has cost, and the once avoidable hardships and suffering in daily life, while also recognizing God’s justice in their national pain. Then, in the midst of his lamentation, the prophet declares the Lord’s mercies. “I will not forget this awful time . . yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: the unfailing love of the Lord never ends! . . Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day . . I will hope in Him!” Read Lamentations 3:20-32 NLT. My thoughts are captured by the phrase, “His mercies begin afresh each day.” Read Isaiah 61:1-3 NIV. When yesterday leaves you not wanting to face another day, awaken to the Lord’s compassion, mercy, and grace – afresh and ample each morning.
Life will hold moments when your present experience defies explanation. Your questions remain unanswered; your pain lingers. Minutes ago, I listened to a song, a phrase of which describes, “the moment when humanity is overcome by Majesty . . when the hurt and the Healer collide.” (The Hurt & The Healer, by MercyMe). In your hurt, you are never out of reach of your Healer.
Years earlier, I found that true the night my father and young sister died tragically in a highway accident. In a lonely motel across the road from the hospital where my Mother’s injuries were massive and her life uncertain, I fell across my bed with indescribable, emotional pain. In that dark night of my soul, I felt lost and alone. I opened my Bible randomly, and read David’s lament and praise, “Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord . . The Lord will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and your going both now and forevermore.” Psalm 121 NIV. In the lonely night, my hurt met my Healer profoundly. For almost fifty years, I have walked in the healing truth of that Psalm.
In the Fall of 2000, unable to sleep, I sat at my desk late at night to process a neurologist’s diagnosis from earlier in the day. My Mother had suffered a massive, cerebral hemorrhage, was not likely to survive surgery if attempted, and would not live through the night without it. Unexpectedly, a promise from God’s Word gripped my breaking heart, “As your days, so shall your strength be.” Deuteronomy 33:25 NKJV. For seven weeks, I walked in the grace of those words, and continue to do so today. Indeed, God’s “mercies begin afresh every morning.”
You can hold tightly to your hurt and its pain, not knowing anything better to do with it, or you can bring your heart to Jesus and discover His compassion and grace, sufficient and unfailing. I pray that you will do the latter. See Hebrews 4:16 NKJV. Peter spoke of people who are waiting expectantly, “. . until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” 2 Peter 1:19 NIV. Jesus is that bright and Morning Star, the early promise of a new and better day for you. Whatever your history, whatever you’ve done, whatever your questions, whatever your past hurt or present pain, “[The Lord’s] mercies begin afresh each day.” See 2 Corinthians 5:17 NIV.
My prayer for you is that you place every hurt in the hands of your Healer today.