THE GREAT COMPASSION, LOVE AND MERCY OF GOD NEVER CEASES

IN THE DAYS OF HIS POWER SERIES.

TOPIC: THE GREAT COMPASSION, LOVE AND MERCY OF GOD NEVER CEASES

SERMON BY-:
Rev. Innocent Chukwudi Peace-Udochukwu
President Living Fountain Ministries Int’l LIFOM

“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end”
Lamentations 3:22

We all dream of a steadfast love, don’t we? We long for a love that will endure hard times and grow stronger with age. We want someone to love us, even when we’re unlovable. We want a perfect love, but does that even exist?

This kind of love does exist and it’s found only in the Lord. I’ve experienced His incredible love and I know, like the author of Lamentations, that the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Believers can trust in the Lord God Almighty with every fiber of their being at every moment in time and in every circumstance because His faithful love never runs out or fails.

Jeremiah remembers and declares this truth in the above verse which is our text for this message.
When our hearts struggle with fear, discouragement, loneliness, pain, or grief, reminding ourselves of the constancy of God’s love can be a tremendously encouraging game-changer. If our faith falters, we must remember God’s immovable, undying, steadfast love. *“He will never abandon the godly. He will keep them safe forever,” declares the psalmist (Psalm 37:28, NLT). Even *“if we are faithless,” explains the apostle Paul, “he remains faithful”* (2 Timothy 2:13; see also Romans 3:3–4).

God’s limitless mercy explains why He has chosen to love humanity since the time of Adam and Eve in the garden. His love extends into today where we still study the Bible in an effort to better comprehend the mysteries of God. With a better understanding of this verse and its implications, we will better understand why God’s love has no end and why that news is encouraging.

“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. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, therefore I will hope in him’” –Lamentations 3:21-24.

To think that the zealous love of the Lord is offered to us free of charge is an incredible thought. The Lord is faithful. He is unchanging in His promises to us even when we are unfaithful to Him. His mercy never stops and it is in that mercy that we find steadfast love.

On the surface, Lamentations 3:22 feels like a happy verse. It’s a verse that fills us with joy and hope for the future. But this verse was written in the midst of dark days. It was birthed out of pain, not joy.

“I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of his wrath; he has driven and brought me into darkness without any light; surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long” –Lamentations 3:1-3 (ESV).

“I have become the laughingstock of all peoples, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is” –Lamentations 3:14-17.

The first half of this chapter is filled with pain and darkness. It seems the author has lost all hope. Have you been there? Have you experienced trials so dark that you didn’t think there was any way out? I have, and it’s a comfort to me to read the words of Jeremiah and know that others have felt the same.

In the midst of lament comes a turning point.

“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. ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, therefore I will hope in him’” –Lamentations 3:21-24.

However painful the consequences of sin, Jeremiah does not neglect to show his hope in God. He remains faithful spiritually even when emotionally he has become distraught with grief. More importantly, Jeremiah gives insight into God’s methodology. While He allows Jerusalem to suffer, that suffering will not endure forever. God will continue to show mercy to His people no matter their sins, and will not ever let full devastation come upon His people.

Unlike we human beings, God’s love doesn’t waver. Sometimes we are tempted to withhold love, let it decrease or favor one person over the other; but God loves equally and justly all of the time. It doesn’t matter if we mess up, even repeating the same sins we’ve confessed and tried to defeat. Though we suffer consequences and disciple in our walk of faith, God’s love for us never changes.

The NIV translation reads:
“Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Our love for God is incredibly fickle. It regularly peaks and falls, like some sort of spiritual heartbeat monitor. One day we might be overflowing with love for the Lord, grateful for all he’s done for us and in a mindset of prayer.

The next day, our love for God might have completely evaporated, disappearing like a mist burned away by the noon sun. The result is we start grumbling and neglecting things like prayer and Bible reading.

But praise God, his love for me is steadfast.

We don’t often use that word. Probably because so few things in our lives are actually steadfast. It seems that everything around is changing, shifting, and morphing. Even in our most intimate relationships, we don’t experience truly unbreakable steadfast love.
The closest I can say I got to that kind of love is from late mother while she was alive in that there was a period in my life when it seemed everyone else hates me with cruel hatred but not my mother, she never gave up on me but kept showing me love and care and I believe that it was that singular act which obviously was made possible by God that helped me to pull through out of that unimaginable quagmire.

God’s love is awesome. We can rejoice in it, and “bask” in it.

God challenges us to take the love that we have received from him and love others—to see how he has loved us and to love others in that same way.

Love is a precious gift to both receive and to give.

Amen!

SHALOM!

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