September 22, 2016
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”—Lamentations 3:22–231
When you’re experiencing a time of deep grief, suffering, or loss, it can be a devastating experience. You may be fighting emotional, physical, and spiritual battles all at once that seem almost unbearable.
You might be battling with regret, or even blaming yourself in some way for whatever circumstances might have led up to your current situation. But you don’t have to keep blaming yourself. When you tell the Lord you’re sorry and ask for His forgiveness, then it’s over, it’s done with! He’s forgiven you, and He never holds your sins or failings or mistakes against you.
You just have to receive His forgiveness by faith. You may feel that you don’t deserve it. You may feel that you somehow need to pay for your sins and shortcomings, but He says, “In the very moment that you seek My forgiveness and in the very instant that you call out to Me, I immediately grant My forgiveness, and there is no more need to worry or fear or carry that burden.” In the book of Isaiah, the Lord tells us that “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”2
Please reach out to Him when you are experiencing regrets and condemnation and receive His forgiveness. It’s there for you immediately! You don’t need to go on another minute in the agony of regret or condemnation. God’s Word says we are to lay aside every weight and sin from the past.3 His mercies are renewed every morning and we can face each day with newness of life in Jesus in the present.
At the time that you’re facing these seemingly insurmountable trials and difficulties, it can seem like you will never be happy again, and you feel absolutely terrible; you never felt so bad before in your whole life. But please know that in time this too will pass, as Jesus soothes your pain and covers you in His love and never-ending mercies.
Jesus has promised to take every burden of condemnation, so cast it all on the Lord. It’s too heavy for you, but it wasn’t meant for you to carry! “Cast thy burden on the Lord, and He shall sustain thee; He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”4 In the very moment that you ask His forgiveness, He gives it, and there’s no more need to worry or fear. Regardless of how you may feel, you can trust that His mercies are renewed for you every day and His love never ceases.5
When we’re in the midst of trying times, it’s difficult to comprehend how the Lord could possibly use these experiences for good in some way. It’s almost impossible to fathom how these could all work together for good, especially when you’re feeling so broken and desperate and barely able to keep hanging on. Just know that the Lord promises that someday we will see the good even in what seems like great defeat.
The Lord will give you everything you need for your times of darkness, your times of sadness, your times of weakness, your times of struggle, your times of questioning and your times of doubting. Most of all, He will give you His love in the form of His healing. He wants to renew your heart and your spirit and your will to live.
The Lord has a unique plan for each one of us. Every single person is precious to Him and of great importance, and is dear to His heart. He doesn’t love one of His children more than the other. It is not because of a difference in His love that some suffer and some are delivered in any given situation, but it is because He has a unique plan for each of us. During trying times, it is natural to question and to try to figure it all out, but ultimately we have to just trust Him. He has promised that if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him.6 If you’ll draw close to Him, He’ll fill your every need, answer your questions, heal your wounds, and strengthen your broken heart.
Through even the difficult times, you can come to know His love, mercy, forgiveness, and tenderness in a way that you have never known before. So receive the Lord’s gifts of love and mercy, and trust that the Lord has a wonderful plan and future for you. He has promised that He has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”7
The Lord often can use us most for His glory and for others when we are the most broken and have no strength of our own, and we know how weak and frail we are. The Lord has promised to bring beauty even out of our ashes, and good out of what seems so terrible at the time. The Lord sees things so differently than we do, and He wants to use everything we experience in this life to draw us closer to His heart of love and to mold us in His likeness. “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory.”8
Just think, right before what would likely be the darkest hour of Peter’s life, Jesus, anticipating the pain and confusion, doubt and regret that he would feel, told him: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”9 I’m praying for you, dear ones, that you’ll hold on to these comforting words and that they will give you faith to believe in His love no matter what difficulties you might be facing.
God bless and keep you, and heal you and help you to keep fighting the good fight of faith and laying hold of His many promises for those who love Him!
Originally published July 1995. Adapted and republished September 2016.
Read by Debra Lee.
1 ESV.
2 Isaiah 1:18 ESV.
3 Hebrews 12:1.
4 Psalm 55:22; Romans 8:1 KJV.
5 Lamentations 3:22–23.
6 Jeremiah 29:13.
7 Jeremiah 29:11 NIV.
8 2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV.
9 Luke 22:31–32 ESV.
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