My soul is downcast within me.
—Lamentations 3:20
Hopeless! A one-word description of the nation of Judah. Their sins had caught up with them. Jerusalem was in ruins. They were broken and defeated. Jeremiah had repeatedly warned them it was coming, but they had not listened (Jer 25:3).
Jeremiah was devastated: “My soul is downcast,” he said, “but this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.” What did Jeremiah call to mind that gave him hope? This: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end . . . therefore I will hope in him” (Lam 3:21–24).
Are you at the end of your rope? Helpless and hopeless? No, not if you call this to mind, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end.”
God’s love and mercy never end.
Therefore, neither does your hope.