Find Hope In Despair

Lamentations 4:1-10

You may have started reading Lamentations 4 as if the winds changed in Jeremiah’s experience. Things got better; God was moving and restoring in Jerusalem, His mercies are new, and everything is better now… except not. Lamentations 4 expresses the desolation of the city and its people. Children are thirsty and hungry; their faces are covered in soot to an extent unrecognizable, and even the noblest and most compassionate women are steeping to new levels of despair. Things have gotten worse.

Lamenting and grief are similar in effect. We expect when things start to get better; it’s a linear path to peace. If you’ve been through grief at any point, you know that’s not true. Grief is not a circle or steps but a profound expression of emotion. It’s almost always never linear. There are moments when it feels overwhelming fresh but has been years since the initial incident. Grief is complex.

But, the difference between Lamentations 3 and 4 should remind us that there are good moments amid grief. There is hope in the middle of despair. When Jeremiah says, “His mercies are new every morning,” that should be a reminder that hope is new daily. We always have a reason to hope, which is worth living for and striving for. Even in the thick of grief, we can experience hope, and hope is one of the most beautiful things God has gifted us with.

So if today is a bad day, will you hope tomorrow will be better? Will you take heart that God’s presence surrounds you and that he has not forgotten you? Will you cling to God’s promise that there will be a day when grief will no longer exist?