A new month of life is here for you and I today. An invitation to start fresh, begin again, and receive the tri-fecta of new mercies for a new day, a new week, and a new month.

Lamentations 3: 22-23 tells us “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Maybe you’re completely on track to have the best year of your life, slaying your goals, growing and improving, changing and making major progress. Woooohoooo sister, come in close for that butt smack! Yaassssss I’m proud of you girl!

Or maybe you’re struggling hardcore. You’re discouraged by your current reality, and disappointed by your inability to consistently move forward. Dang it, I’m sorry for whatever may be hurting you or causing you to be stuck. Come in close and let me encourage you today.

Which ever end of the spectrum you may fall, and to everyone in between, God has mercifully chosen to give you life again today. Because he loves you, and because he is faithful, he made the sun to rise and commanded the darkness flee.

Sister, did you hear that? The darkness has been commanded to flee. The Almighty has declared it is time for life now. It is time to wake up and live now. It is time to receive the gift of his offerings today and move forward.

Yesterday’s successes will only carry you so far, and yesterday’s failures ended with the rising of that sun today. It’s a brand new day and you’ve never seen one like it.

Here you are on the edge of a potential you didn’t know existed. On the edge of an opportunity you’ve never even imagined. What will you do?

This scripture we’re studying today comes from the book of Lamentations. Jeremiah wrote this in a time of great loss and mourning. It’s a book of “laments” or “loud cries”. But this scripture is all about the steadfast love of God that is never failing in the form of new mercies every single morning. That doesn’t sound so much like a loud cry of grief or anguish. It sounds like praise. It sounds like an affirmation.

BECAUSE IT IS.

This is Jeremiah demanding his thoughts align with God’s truth. This is him saying regardless of circumstances, God’s light is here to overcome the darkness today.

The first 20 verses of Lamentations 3 are a list of Jeremiah’s hardships and despair. Let’s just say everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong. He had failed and people had failed him. And honestly, he felt God had failed him.

Is it okay to feel that way? Is it okay to admit you’re disappointed in a good, good father who has allowed things that are anything but good? ABSOLUTELY!

It’s completely okay to be disappointed in how things have worked out. It’s okay to be angry over God’s ways that sure seem a whole lot less favorable than your own. And it’s okay to be mad at the hand that it all passed through. But honey, just keep coming back to him so he can show you there’s so much more you don’t yet see.

After Jeremiah’s long list of hardships and disappointments and honest loud cries, he says in verse 21: “Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:”

YET. This is my reality, YET this is what I will think about. This is what my world looks like right now, YET this is how I will wake up this morning and fill my thoughts. GOD’S MERCIES ARE NEW EACH DAY.

Why does Jeremiah call God’s faithfulness and new mercies to mind? Because THIS IS WHAT GIVES HIM HOPE!

You have hope available for you today my sister. And this hope will not allow you to be consumed by the darkness that threatens your joy. This hope will not allow you to be overwhelmed by the threats of the enemy that would keep you held back in a life short of God’s goodness available for you. This hope will help you get up again today and meet his new mercies and receive the tri-fecta of a new day, a new week, and a new month.

Maybe January and February were hard. Maybe life hasn’t been fair and your family has been hurting. Maybe the darkness has been of your own doing, or maybe the darkness couldn’t be avoided under your own power. Here you are today with the offering of hope. The offering of light. The offering of new mercies that will strengthen you to do every single thing you need to do.

Did you know that’s what is being offered to you today? Today, you can have the strength, energy, wisdom, patience, confidence, self-control and will-power to do every single thing you need to do. Yes, even if you screwed that up before, his mercy is fresh here today with the offering to equip you with all you need for this day. Won’t you accept it?

Maybe you don’t know how to accept it. Maybe you’re world class at refusing help and digging the hole deeper. Okay cool … because God sees you in that deep hole and he still calls you out.

The very first step in being equipped for living today is to get your head right! Get your thoughts in alignment with God’s truths. “YET THIS I CALL TO MIND”, meaning “this may really suck and it may not be the way I wanted it to be, but my thoughts will turn from all that is wrong and I will turn my thoughts intentionally.”

Oh yes, now to what? Where should I turn my thoughts? To the steadfast love of the Lord that never stops and his mercies that are brand new for me here today. God’s faithfulness is great towards me personally. And THIS GIVES ME HOPE.

Hope comes through what we call to mind. Don’t miss that. Hope comes through your thoughts, and you choose every single one of them.

Here you are with this brand new day of life, brand new week of life, and brand new month of life. Where will your mind go next? Will it go to darkness? Or will you demand that darkness flee because God’s mercy is new and fresh here this morning with the offering of hope and light?

Funny story, this weekend I went with a few of my BIG Life sisters to swim with the manatee in the coves of Chrystal River in Florida. This is the single largest natural gathering of manatee in the world. They come for the warm spring water in the winter months. Our guide takes us out, plops us in the water with our snorkeling gear and all we see is murky green/brown water. We swim and swim and swim. Nothing. It’s already very warm here, so the masses of manatee have already left the coves and gone to deeper waters. We get back in the boat and with totally unnecessary enthusiasm our guide says “that was almost great!”

What? That was ALMOST GREAT?!!!! We saw nothing!

Doesn’t that sum up life sometimes? That was almost great, but I sure must have missed it.

But let me tell you something, a few more minutes and a little further down the cove, we entered the water again and right below me from these merky green/brown waters came the most massive beast I’ve ever been in the water with. She was right below me, now coming up for air, meeting my belly. There she was and it was GREAT!!!!!! Then more manatee emerged all around us, swimming with us, coming face to face with us, even one with her baby.

What was almost great before was really just a big disappointment. We had to get back in that water and keep moving forward to experience something truly great.

Where you are today may be “almost great” and it may be real disappointing, but honey you have no idea what could be just ahead for you if you do not give up hope. Dare to keep hoping here. Dare to receive God’s offering of new mercy here this morning and set your mind to his faithfulness. He has something GREAT for you.