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LAMENTATIONS 3:22-24
Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,
Because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“Therefore I hope in Him!”
As 2024 draws to a close and the dawn of 2025 approaches, the world seeks hope for a new year as we do every year, but such new dawning is artificial and marks no change to the continuing challenges that face us whichever way we turn. The prophet Jeremiah reminds us that no matter what may happen, only our Lord fails not and His mercies and compassions are new every morning.
Remember, O LORD, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses,
For they are from of old.
Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions;
According to Your mercy remember me,
For Your goodness’ sake, O LORD.
PSALM 25:6-7
These words from Psalm 25 reveal a plea from the heart of God to come to Him seeking His tender mercies and His lovingkindnesses. This may seem an odd thing to say as the Psalm more obviously is a plea from David to Father God to remember His servant, but surely we can see that such inspiration arises from The Almighty in the first place, as He is the creator of all things, where ‘all things’ means that and no less. His word to us is always clear…
For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
“In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”
ISAIAH 30:15
And there I intended to stop: until this morning (31st December 2024), when I read the Oswald Chambers devotion for this day, which spoke powerfully to me, so that I could not help but share it…
YESTERDAY
“You shall not go out with haste, . . . for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard.” Isaiah 52:12
Security from Yesterday. “God requires an account of what is past” (Ecclesiastes 3:15). At the end of the year we turn with eagerness to all that God has for the future, and yet anxiety is apt to arise when we remember our yesterdays. Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.
Security for Tomorrow. “The Lord will go before you.” This is a gracious revelation—that God will send His forces out where we have failed to do so. He will keep watch so that we will not be tripped up again by the same failures, as would undoubtedly happen if He were not our “rear guard.” And God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.
Security for Today. “You shall not go out with haste.” As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ. Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him.
His compassions fail not.
GREAT IS THY FAITHFULNESS — Maranatha Music
A CLOSING WORD from OSWALD CHAMBERS
Faith that is sure of itself is not faith. Faith that is sure of God is the only faith there is.
LISTEN TO 'HIS COMPASSIONS FAIL NOT' BY CLICKING ON THE AUDIO FILE BELOW
COMING NEXT... #556 THE WORD FROM THE BEGINNING
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