Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion and inheritance. Therefore I will wait for Him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)
God is Love
1 John 4:8 says, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” Love is one of God’s personal traits along with His wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. Love saturates the Lord’s essence in all He is and all He does. Love flows out from God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) to us like water gushing from a fire hydrant. Stronger than the waters of Niagara Falls. Today’s news mentions poverty and racial antagonism; cyber-attacks and impending wars; lawsuits, arrests, and scandals; cruelty and killing. Praise the Lord, Christ’s followers are promised that nothing can separate us from God’s love!1
The Lamentations passage above encourages us and helps us to embolden others. It was written by Jeremiah in disastrous days connected with the destruction of God’s temple in Jerusalem in 586 BC, and the Jews were forced into exile. Yet Jeremiah cheered himself and God’s people to look up to the Lord to trust in His compassion, faithfulness, and provision. Like them, Jesus’ followers are to taste and see God’s goodness and to pass on God’s love to others.
This section of Lamentations reminds me of John Keble (1792–1866), an English pastor and poet. He began writing poems for Sundays and other days of worship. These were gathered into a book called “The Christian Year,” first published anonymously in 1827. Keble’s authorship soon became known. One of his poems was set to music as the hymn, “New Every Morning Is God’s Love.”2 Here are two stanzas from the hymn with comments.
Stanza 1
Hymn: New every morning is God’s love, Our wakening and uprising prove.
Through sleep and darkness safely brought, Restored to life and power and thought.
Comment: Each day is a precious gift from God. Let’s remember that we are not entitled to anything or deserve anything, but God gives so generously! Too much focus on the past can depress us, while too much focus on the future can make us anxious. So the Psalmist says, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it… Oh, give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! For His kindness, love, and mercy endure forever.”3
The Spirit of Life
The Holy Spirit is the Lord and Giver of physical, spiritual, and eternal life. Along with the Father and Son, the Spirit creates us, cares for us, renews us, and purifies our hearts. The Holy Spirit is God’s active, life-giving presence in the world. He empowers Jesus’ believers to live God-honoring lives and bring God’s plan to completion. He sustains us through each night and wakes us. It’s not automatic. The Spirit lovingly acts, helping us serve Him and others each brand-new day.
Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days… Let the morning bring me word of Your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in You. Show me the way I should go, for to You I entrust my life. (Psalm 90:14, 143:8)
God’s special help often arrives in the morning. Jesus’ Easter morning resurrection changed history and brought the dawning of new days for all who trust in Him. Christ inaugurated a brand new era of acceptance, adoption, forgiveness, fellowship with God, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The Lord will change our nights of weeping to new sunrises of blessing. What great thoughts these are to begin any day! I need to dwell on them more!
Saved to be Like the Lord
1 Corinthians 13:4-8 describes the Christ-like love that Christians are to demonstrate. Since God is love, His people have been filled with the Spirit to imitate the Lord. If we do not demonstrate kindness to people, 1 John 4:8 says that we don’t really know God at all, however much we know about Him. God is patient and kind with us. He respects and honors us. He is not easily angered, and because of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for us, He keeps no record of our wrongs. The Lord does not delight in evil, injustice, and wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres with us. His love never fails. Our God is so great!
Let’s remember these truths about the Lord’s loving character and conduct each morning, night, and in all the hours in between!
Stanza 2
Hymn: New mercies, each returning day, Hover around us while we pray.
New perils past, new sins forgiven. New thoughts of God, new hopes of Heaven.
Comment: James promises, “Come near to God and He will come near to you.”4 And the Psalmist says: “As for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge.”5 Christians come close to the Lord to receive new mercies, new pardons, new insights, and new foretastes of Heaven, as we mix Bible study with prayer. That’s how we communicate with the Lord. “No ear has heard, no human mind has conceived the things God has prepared for His believers who love Him.6 We can give thanks that Jesus’ grace has already brought us through many dangers, toils, and snares. Christ has brought us safely through life thus far and His grace will lead us home.7
Indeed, the Lord loves His people. All His holy ones are in His hands. They follow in His steps and accept His teaching. (Deut 33:3)
Safe in Christ
None of Jesus’ followers will be lost, even though we stumble along the way. We are headed for Heaven, as we continue through this fallen world. We are citizens of Heaven now, still in the land of the dying, but soon we will be taken to the land of the living!8 Soon, at any moment, we can be snatched away from all we’ve known down here up to paradise with Christ.9 Jesus will take us to a better country, the city with foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God.10 Gladness and joy will overtake us, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.11 We will see Jesus face to face and be home with Him forever.12 Remembering these truths helps us to press on in serving our loving Savior and others.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, help us to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Help us to run the race marked out for us with perseverance. Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of our faith. He endured the cross and grave for us, was raised, and is now enthroned to bless us. Keep us Christ-centered and Heavenly-minded so that we don’t grow weary and lose heart. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.13
You can read God’s Love: New Every Morning (Part 2)
Notes (various Bible translations, including my own): 1 Rom 8:31-39. 2 Keble’s original title and first stanza read, “New every morning is the love.” I have changed it to God’s love when I sing the hymn or use it with others. God’s great love is the theme of the whole hymn, and Keble directly states it in stanza 8. 3 Ps 118:24,29. 4 James 4:8. 5 Ps 73:8. 6 1 Cor 2:9. 7 from John Newton’s hymn, “Amazing Grace.” 8 Phil 3:20. 9 Luke 23:43. 10 Heb 11:10,16. 11 Isa 51:11. 12 1 Cor 13:12; 2 Cor 5:8. 13 Prayer based on Heb 12:1-3.