Let’s face it. Today’s headlines are yesterday’s headlines. And chances are they will be tomorrow’s headlines, too. As Solomon states, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”1 😒 Solomon’s world view is quite depressing. He exclaims, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”2 Other translations render it: “Everything is pointless.” and “Nothing matters!” and “Everything is futile!” and “Life is useless.” and “Everything is meaningless!” And after reading the newspaper headlines day after day, year after year, we realize how prophetic this preacher was!
It would be quite easy for us to say the same things about the state of our world today, don’t you think? How do we not become overwrought, obsessed and consumed with the “meaninglessness” of it all? How do we have hope in a hopeless world?
There is only one way that I know of, and that is “to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.”3 God’s love for us exceeds our greatest understanding and actually “surpasses knowledge,” but if we seek to understand his love, we will “be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”4 And as we are being “filled to the measure,” our lives are no longer empty and pointless but begin to take on meaning.🙂
The prophet Jeremiah figured that out, too. As he despaired over the destruction of Jerusalem and the hopelessness of his situation, he wrote this encouraging thought. “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.”5 What is “this” that he remembered? What is the reason for his hope? “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed.”6 “The Lord’s great love” has the power to save us from being consumed by all the vanity in life. How does this happen? Every day God has compassion on us. “For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning.”7 Or to put it another way “His mercies have no limit!”
God’s mercy—his grace and kindness, his understanding and tenderness, his forgiveness and love—is available to us every day. God’s mercy is never ending. How do we get this mercy? It’s pretty simple. We ask for it! 🙂 Once there was a blind man who discovered Jesus was passing by him and realizing that this was his opportunity to be healed, “he cried out, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’”8 And so he did! God’s mercies are there for the taking. His mercies keep us hopeful because we know God sees our suffering and hears our cries. And so we who believe live with hope in a hopeless world. 😀
However, it is not easy to sustain this hope. It is a battle. 😕 That’s why God offers his mercies “every morning.” The only way to not be “consumed” by the world’s hopelessness is to stop hoping in the world!🙃 Because Solomon is right, you know! Everything is meaningless! And that realization will consume us unless and until . . . until “the Lord’s great love” enters our hearts and “we are not consumed.” We can receive his new mercies every day. And “because of the Lord’s great love” we can confidently live life the way it was meant to be lived—even in this hopeless world! 😊
“The Lord’s great love” transforms us and gives meaning to a meaningless world. And while Solomon cries out “vanity of vanities! All is vanity,” we counter with No! 🤨 In Christ, nothing is in vain. “Our preaching is not in vain.”9 “Your faith is not in vain.”9 “Your labor is not in vain.”10 But most of all “His grace toward me was not in vain.”11 The world cries out that everything is pointless, futile, meaningless, and useless. We who know “the Lord’s great love” understand that nothing is for nothing!
Joseph looked at his brothers who had thrown him into a pit to die, which resulted in his living years of his life as a slave and a prisoner, and said to them, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”12 That’s what God can do—turn bad things into good. Only “the Lord’s great love” can keep us from becoming consumed by hopelessness and instead have hope in this hopeless world. 🙂
1Ecclesiastes 1:9 2Ecclesiastes 1:2 3Ephesians 3:18-19 4Ephesians 3:19 5Lamentations 3:21 6Lamentations 3:22 7Lamentations 3:22-23 8Luke 18:38 91 Corinthians 15:14 101 Corinthians 15:58 111 Corinthians 15:10 12Genesis 50:20
“For his compassions never fail. They are new every morning”
I am so thankful – A new day to walk with Him and have Him hold me.