Hope
Read Jeremiah 31.1-14
“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again, and you, Virgin Israel, will be rebuilt ..” (Jer.31.3-4)
To a people who’d gone completely off the rails and had ended up in exile, this fresh assurance of the constancy of the Lord’s covenant love for them afforded them hope when otherwise they’d have utterly despaired.
The exile was part of the disciplining love of the Lord: in what ways have you known the ‘discipline’ of the Lord?
When you’ve failed the Lord – badly, perhaps; perversely, maybe; and possibly persistently, too – do you struggle to hold on to the promise of this chapter?
Prayer: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love: according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” (Ps.51.1-2)