Dear Ones,
Hope you wake to a day of Hope! We are getting excited as we leave very early tomorrow morning for Olathe KS as our granddaughter is getting married on Friday afternoon. We are coming back home on Saturday Appreciate prayers for our trip! Emoji
Devotions from Judy’s heart
Have you ever felt like you were in a hopeless situation and saw no way out? Maybe that things would never change and that you were stuck? Those thoughts can plaque us at times and we don’t want to stay there but turn our thoughts to the Lord who hears and understands and has all power. I was reading from Lamentations 3 recently and Jeremiah was sharing all the suffering he had experienced; he was imprisoned and ridiculed and even put in a slimy pit. How many of us wouldn’t feel hopeless and like the bottom had dropped out.

But after rehearsing all the bad things that plaque him. Jeremiah responds with words of hope. He says in verses 21-26, “The reason I can still find hope is that I keep this one thing in mind: the Lord’s mercy. We were not completely wiped out. His compassion is never limited. It is new every morning. His faithfulness is great. My soul can say, ‘The Lord is my lot in life; That is why I find hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to anyone who seeks help from Him. It is good to continue to hope and wait silently for the Lord to save us.”  Jeremiah is realizing that God’s love and mercy never runs out and He is totally faithful and can depend on Him every day, and so can we.

Sometimes in His mercy, God sends us a friend in the midst of our seemingly hopeless situation, that just listens to us with compassion. They hear us and try to understand and reflectively listen without interruption. Somehow as we share our hearts and are heard, the answer may come to us from the Lord. Or knowing that they understand our pain and will pray for us, lifts us from the slimy pit to a place of hope. Whether we are the person in despair or the one listening and giving encouragement, we all can hope in the Lord who is faithful and merciful. In the Message translation Jeremiah says in verses 28-29, “When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions: Wait for hope to appear.” No situation is hopeless when our hope is in Him!

Challenge for today: When you feel despair, go to the Lord and receive His mercy and wait in hope.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy