Hope Lives in the Waiting
ADVENT DAY 2
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. - Lamentations 3:21–26
Hope doesn’t grow in easy seasons. It grows in the waiting. The writer of Lamentations had just poured out page after page of raw emotion: frustration, anger, confusion, grief, and utter sorrow. He wasn’t writing from comfort but from catastrophe. Jerusalem had fallen. His people had been conquered. His city had become a war zone. Everything familiar, stable, and safe had been torn apart. And yet, right in the middle of his pain, something remarkable happens. He pauses. He remembers. He preaches to himself: 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 (vv. 22-23). Even though he could not see God working, he trusted that God was working. Even when his circumstances screamed despair, he spoke hope to his own soul. He reminded himself that God’s compassion never fails, His mercies rise with the morning, and His faithfulness outlasts every season of suffering. This is the heart of advent hope: a confidence not rooted in how life feels, but in who God is. The writer had every reason to give up, but because of the great and faithful love of God, he could still have hope. And so can we.
Practice for Today:
Set one simple reminder on your phone today that says: Pause. Remember His faithfulness. When it goes off, stop and recall one way God has carried you, comforted you, or sustained you in the past. Let that memory renew your hope in the present.
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 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. I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. - Lamentations 3:21–26
Hope doesn’t grow in easy seasons. It grows in the waiting. The writer of Lamentations had just poured out page after page of raw emotion: frustration, anger, confusion, grief, and utter sorrow. He wasn’t writing from comfort but from catastrophe. Jerusalem had fallen. His people had been conquered. His city had become a war zone. Everything familiar, stable, and safe had been torn apart. And yet, right in the middle of his pain, something remarkable happens. He pauses. He remembers. He preaches to himself: 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 (vv. 22-23). Even though he could not see God working, he trusted that God was working. Even when his circumstances screamed despair, he spoke hope to his own soul. He reminded himself that God’s compassion never fails, His mercies rise with the morning, and His faithfulness outlasts every season of suffering. This is the heart of advent hope: a confidence not rooted in how life feels, but in who God is. The writer had every reason to give up, but because of the great and faithful love of God, he could still have hope. And so can we.
Practice for Today:
Set one simple reminder on your phone today that says: Pause. Remember His faithfulness. When it goes off, stop and recall one way God has carried you, comforted you, or sustained you in the past. Let that memory renew your hope in the present.