I love warm fuzzies. I mean, really. Who doesn’t love a good warm fuzzy moment? When you feel all ooey gooey inside? It’s the best!
I’ve been feeling very nostalgic lately. Maybe it’s the season. Maybe it’s the weather. Maybe it’s watching Alex pull out of the driveway and thinking, “Wasn’t he just a baby yesterday?”
I’ve been pulling out old pictures of the kids and remembering all those warm fuzzy moments. The snuggling and cuddling and hugs. Remembering the chubby baby fingers reaching for mine. Warm fuzzies at their best!
Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”The Lord is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.
So it is good to wait quietly
for salvation from the Lord.(Jeremiah 3:21-26)
This is a warm fuzzy section of scripture if I’ve ever read one! His love never ends and His mercies never cease! They’re new every morning. Great is His faithfulness, and He is so good!
The mind blowing thing about this, though, is what Jeremiah was facing when he wrote these words. The amazing thing is what verses 1-20 say, especially verse 20.
I will never forget this awful time,
as I grieve over my loss.
Jeremiah and the people of Israel were in an awful time. A desperate time. They were in a season of destruction and devastation and loss.
I don’t know about you, but when I look around and see destruction and devastation and loss running amuck around my life, I’m more likely to say, “Why, God, why?” than, “You are good! Great is Thy faithfulness!”
No, those things would be way down the list of things I might say – maybe on page 27 or something! But they were right at the top of Jeremiah’s list.
There’ve been times in my life that were so bad I just looked up to God and said, “I thought you said Your plans were to prosper me and NOT to harm me. They were to give me hope and a good future. But this really looks and feels harmful to me and nothing looks good about it! What are You thinking?”
I’m sure Joseph looked up a time or two or a thousand and said, “Really God? Prison? In Egypt? What are You thinking? This is so far opposite of what You showed me…I don’t see how it can ever change! I don’t see how it can ever become good.”
But that’s when we need to say like Jeremiah, “Yet I still dare to hope.”
That’s when we need to trust and say, “Your love is unfailing! Your mercies are unending! Your faithfulness is amazing! Your mercies are new each and every day! You are good, Lord! I don’t understand, but I trust You!”
That’s when we need to look past what we can see, past what we don’t understand, past the destruction and devastation and heartache and heartbreak and just see Him. Just see His character.
That’s when we need to close our eyes to everything else and remember:
He is good.
He is faithful.
He is our ever-present help in times of trouble.
He still does miracles.
Remember Him today and trust. He is still the same God that split the sea to make a way of escape for His people. And I’m pretty sure they didn’t see that coming. It caught them by surprise.
He can and will do the same thing for you. He’ll do something you can’t even imagine possible to make a way of escape for you. He’ll catch you by surprise too.
So close your eyes, remember His character, and dare to hope.
He’s still the God of the impossible, and He is so faithful!