Daily Devotional For Thursday, August 27, 2026
Good morning Southside! Our devotional for today comes from Lamentations 3:22-23, “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. (23) Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning” (NLT). These verses remind us of that great hymn by Thomas O. Chisholm that begins this way:
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father! There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not: As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.
What a powerful hymn this is. Not only is it a powerful hymn, it is my personal favorite hymn. Many hymns come to us through a person who went through some kind of tragedy such as Amazing Grace by John Newton. The hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness does not. This hymn is not from a single experience but from a lifetime of God’s faithful care. Not long before Chisholm died, he wrote these words:
“My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. But I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness” (Source: Thomas Chisholm, quoted in Kenneth W. Osbeck, Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions, p. 348).
.When we read or sing the words of Great Is Thy Faithfulness remembering the proper biblical context, the wonder of God’s providing care becomes amazing to us. The words of Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:22-23, are words of a survivor. It was precisely that Jeremiah suffered so horribly that he was able to appreciate the little daily mercies from God in his life. Jeremiah is called “The Weeping Prophet” for very good and correct reasons.
Through his sufferings, Jeremiah’s character matured and he learned much about the nature of God. Jeremiah had learned to praise the Lord for His love, His compassion and His being faithful to His covenant. In verse 22, the word “compassions” is plural and this would remind him of God’s daily faithfulness to him. In the process of remembering God’s attributes, Jeremiah was drawn back into living an intimate communion and fellowship with God. He did not merely list God’s attributes—he praised God for them, so that his theology became his doxology. Old Testament scholar Philip G. Ryken writes this:
“Christians who suffer do more than suffer. They also wait. This is not the passive waiting of stoic endurance. It is rather an active resting in the goodness of God, with the hopeful expectation that someday one’s trials will come to an end. There are times when the only thing a sufferer can do is wait for God. But waiting is good because God is worth waiting for. His salvation will come in due course, provided one surrenders to his will and to his timing” (Philip G. Ryken, Preach The Word, “Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow To Hope, p. 756).
Reflection Assignment: When you suffer, do you actively wait and rest in the Lord? Take a moment and read Lamentations 3:25-26. What does this say to you about suffering and waiting on the Lord?
Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. (6) In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, please forgive me for making my suffering about me. As I do, I want to wait on You and learn from You and focus on Your attributes. If the suffering is part of Your will for my life, I will accept it and trust Your timing. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside!-- Pastor Kelly