THINK TOGETHER
Are you faithful? Do you keep your promises?
READ TOGETHER
The prophet Jeremiah wrote two books that are in your Bible: Jeremiah and Lamentations. Can you find the book of Lamentations in the Bible?
The word “lamentations” means sadness. A lament was a poem or song written about how sad you were, and in the Bible laments were sung to God to let him know that you were very upset. Did you know that you can let God know when you are sad or upset? You can. And you should. God cares about us very much, and he cares when we are sad or when things aren’t going the way we want them to.
The poem in the book of Lamentations that the prophet Jeremiah wrote is very sad. Listen to some of the things Jeremiah says:
3:2. [God] has driven and brought me
into darkness without any light;
3:8. though I call and cry for help,
[God] shuts out my prayer;
3:18. I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the Lord.”
Jeremiah is telling God how he feels. When he prays to God he doesn’t just ask God for things, he also let’s God know that he is sad or even angry. To Jeremiah it feels like God has “brought him into darkness,” and “shut him out.”
But does God really “bring us into darkness?” Does God “shut us out?”
No. He doesn’t. How do we know? Because God sent his son, Jesus to save us by dying on the cross for our sins, and to come alive for us so that we would never have to live in darkness again. And because of Jesus we will never be shut out from God, not ever. Jesus has shown us that God is good even when we are bad, and God is faithful, even when we are unfaithful.
And Jeremiah knew this too, even hundreds of years before Jesus. Jeremiah knew that God would be faithful, and loving, and forgiving, and that he would never give up on us no matter what. He knew that God would always keep his promises. And so he wrote these words in the middle of his poem:
Jeremiah 3:21-23. But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Because of Jesus we know that God will always be faithful to us.
With Jesus we can have hope on sad days because we know that God loves us even when we are bad or when times are hard.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Sing “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” together. Here’s a couple good versions.
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus,
You are always faithful to me. Help me to be faithful to you.
Amen.
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