13th. April 2020. Daily Devotion.
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 3:22-23
Christ is Risen and the message of the Gospel resounds throughout the world once again.
Today is normally a holiday, a celebration, a time to relax. Many of us now have too much time to relax while lingering over us is uncertainty, anxiety, perhaps, about the future. Steadfastness of faith requires a daily renewal of commitment to the source of our faith. Jeremiah reminds us that God’s constant love and mercy do not end because he renews them to us every morning in his great faithfulness. As this crisis continues, we must respond with equal faithfulness by trusting his faithfulness and making our faith new every morning.
I came across these thoughts by Corrie ten Boom who endured, day after day for the best part of a year, imprisonment in Scheveningen prison, Herzogenbusch and Ravensbrück concentration camps for helping Jewish people to escape Nazism.
She said,
“Worry doesn’t empty tomorrow of its sorrows; it empties today of its strength.”
“Once, I had a burden that weighed heavily on me. I set it down and looked at it. Then I saw that everything about my burden was borrowed. One part belonged to the following day, one part to the next week. My burden was a huge, stupid mistake. I realised that worrying is carrying tomorrow’s burden with today’s strength. It’s carrying two days at once. It’s prematurely thinking of tomorrow. On the calendar, there is only one day for action, and that is today.”
“Making plans is time-consuming. Time is necessary for making wise plans but carrying them out belongs to only one day—today. We become concerned about the future—our financial concerns, our health. Where does this lead to? Nowhere. Nowhere that is worth the trouble because tension ruins things. It depletes the energy that you need to live today. The Holy Spirit does not give you a clear blueprint for your life, but He leads you from moment to moment. Live for today! The sun will shine on the problems that tomorrow brings.”
A parable
A small clock, which had just been finished by its maker, was put on a shelf in his shop between two old clocks that were busily and loudly ticking away the seconds. “So,” said one of the old clocks to the newcomer, “you’ve just started this task. I feel sorry for you. You are bravely ticking now, but you’ll be very tired once you’ve ticked thirty-three million times.”
“Thirty-three million ticks?” said the startled clock, “but I could never do that!” He immediately stopped in desperation.
“Come on, stupid,” said the other clock. “Why do you listen to such talk? That’s not how things are. At each moment you only need to tick once. Isn’t that easy? And then again. That’s just as easy. Carry on like that.”
“Oh, if that’s all,” the new clock cried, “then that’s easy enough. Off I go.” And he began to bravely tick each moment, without paying attention to the months and the millions of ticks. When the year was up, he had ticked thirty-three million times without realising it.
Yes, living for the moment, that’s what we need. The Lord’s prayer says, “Give us today our daily bread.” …A person does not fall so much because of the troubles of one day, but if tomorrow’s burden is added, this load can become very, very heavy. It is wonderfully easy to live just for the day.
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion— to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour. Isaiah 61:1-3
Keep praying that these words may be realised in lives and communities around the world.
Here is a prayer courtesy of Woman’s Day:
