New Mercies Every Morning

Jeremiah wrote these words sitting in the ashes of his own city. Jerusalem was rubble, the temple burned, the people carried away — and it is there, of all places, that the prophet lifts his eyes and says: it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. Hope did not come to Jeremiah when his circumstances improved. It came when he remembered who God is.

The mercies are new every morning. Not yesterday's mercy warmed over, not a ration measured out for the careful — new. God does not deal with His people out of a shrinking store. Every sunrise carries a fresh supply for that day's obedience, that day's burden, that day's battle. The manna that was hoarded rotted; the manna gathered fresh fed Israel for forty years.

One honest way to receive today's mercy is to remember the first of it. Call to mind the beginnings of grace with your soul — where the Lord found you, what He brought you out of, the day the burden first rolled off. A Christian who remembers his conversion cannot stay hopeless for long, because the God who began the work has not once left it unfinished.

Great is Thy faithfulness. It is not a chorus only; it is the ground a broken man stood on in a broken city and found solid. It will hold you this morning too.

Lord, Thy mercies are new this morning, and I receive them with thanks. Keep me mindful of where Thy grace found me, and faithful where it has placed me. Amen.