Ever have one of those days when you’re feeling down and out?  I have to admit that I do once in a while.  A sure cure for my “woe-is-me” mentality is a section of Scripture from Lamentations where Jeremiah said:

“I’m the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God’s anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. Yes, he’s given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, and poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.” ~ The Message

After I read Jeremiah’s depressing account of his trials and tribulations, my troubles don’t seem quite as bad, and I feel even better when I read what Jeremiah said later in this chapter:  “Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness (Lamentations 3).”

When Jeremiah began to focus less on his problems and more on God, his perspective changed.  He began to realize that the high tide of God’s hope has a rhythmic presence that’s just as certain as the appearance of the moon in the night sky.  He also concluded that the faithfulness of God is as cool and refreshing as an artesian well that never runs dry—it’s “new every morning.”

Whenever you try to view the world through the lens of personal pain, your comprehension will be skewed, and you’ll turn a blind eye to the potential of His promises. The riddles of life can never be solved through the emptiness of the world, but through the fullness of God’s blessing.

When the Psalmist was deluded by the dilemmas of life, he said:  I did not understand, “until I went into the sanctuary of God.”  He then offered this conclusion: “God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever . . . it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all Your works.”

If you feel like your heartache has caused you to “fall away from God,” it may be time to “draw near” to Him again.  He’s right where you left Him and He is waiting to embrace you with open arms.  Run to Him now—“His compassions fail not!”

You are a God full of compassion, generous in grace, slow to anger, and boundless in loyal love and truth.  ~Psalm 86:15