Devotionals

Scripture Reading: Lamentations 3:21-23

With each new year, we strive to become new people. We make resolutions to eat healthier, lose weight, exercise more. We vow to save more and spend less. Yes, THIS will be the year things get better. Many of us will have failed to keep our resolutions by the end of this month; the majority of us will have failed by year’s end. But why do we wait until the end of the year to start over?

Lamentations 3:21-23 says, “²¹This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. ²² It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. ²³They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

It is comforting to know that although we fail so easily and frequently, we have hope in the Lord’s faithfulness. His compassion on us is new every morning. What a blessing to know that with Him, every day is a new day. Our faults and failures don’t follow us from one day to the next. We don’t have to wait until January 1 to start over with God.

Perhaps your New Year’s resolution was more spiritual. Perhaps you vowed to pray more, study your Bible more or attend church more regularly. And maybe, as we are prone to do, you have already faltered in your attempt to do better. The good news is, it’s not too late to start over, because God’s compassions will be new in the morning.

Greater still, God knows our weaknesses. Paul said in Romans 7:15, “For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.” Even Paul faced the struggles that you and I face. He went on to say in verse 19: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.” In verse 24, Paul wondered who would deliver him from this struggle, and in verse 25, he went on to say that deliverance comes through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Friend, you are not a failure because you’ve already given up on your resolutions. Tomorrow is a new day. The only failure is the failure to try again. Second Corinthians 4:16 says, “For which cause we FAINT NOT; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” Every day, we get the strength to try again. Every day, God’s compassion is new again.

Whether or not you’ve faltered yet in keeping your resolutions, I challenge you to make a new one right now. Resolve that this will be the year that you do not fail; instead, this will be the year that no matter how many times you falter, you will not faint. This year, let the resolution be a new you, whether or not you achieve the goal you set for the year, because every day is a new day in the Lord.

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• Tags: compassion, discipline, faithfulness

• Posted by: Karen Tinsley Nelson