This I recall to my mind, therefore I hope

This is a statement made by the writer of Lamentation. He made this statement after he finished describing his challenging, troublesome situation he was in. We can only understand how tough his situation was when we read the entire chapter. This is what he said, " This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. "Lamentations 3: 21-23

Blessed be to the name of Jesus for all his goodness, for his great mercies, and for his amazing love. I truly believe it is the mercy and the love Jesus that enables us to live day to day, time to time, and seasons to seasons. That is what exactly the writer of Lamentations did. He acknowledged the great mercy of God, which is new every morning. He continue acknowledging God throughout his words. He was not only acknowledging God , but also affirming his commitment to depend on God.

Praise God for his word that has a power to change our mind, our heart, our situation. The word of God is a lump for our feet and a light for our path as David indicated it in psalms 119:105.

The writer continued to testify the goodness of the Lord, and he encourage us to remember his goodness and his mercy, which is new every morning, every day, every season. He began expressing his gratitude to God before he continued encouraging and edifying us . He said, " The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. be the name of Jesus for all his goodness, for his mercies , for his love and long-suffering. I bless the name of the lord for many of his benefits, above all for the hope of salivation he has given me though faith in his marvellous work." Lamentation 3: 24-28.

We would learn from the above statements that this person was in a situation seems hopeless. However, we learned something came to change his view or mindset in todays language. This is what he said, the moment he realised the mercy of the Lord. He said, "This I recall this to my mind , therefore I hope. We would learn that when he recalled one thing to his mind and he find hope. We would learn from his statement that he recalled what God has done for him, obviously the mercy of God.

That is why we could see him encouraging us by the word of God after he finds hope in God. That is when he began encouraging us the moment he finds hope. That is when he began acknowledging the mercy and the love of the lord. That is when he began declaring , and affirming his commitment to the lord saying he is the lord is my portion therefore I will hope in him. Praise God for his word.

Praise God for his word for everything that is written, it is written for our own learning as Paul the writer of Romans indicated it saying, " For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Romans 15: 4 It is written so that we could read and get inspiration, we could read and we could get motivation, aspiration and hope in God . Hope is a very vital component in all the things that we do by faith. We have started our walk with God through faith believing his great promises. We have walked all the way with him through faith. We live by faith, not by sight. Therefore, we need to believe all the promises God, and our hope should be in the Lord. We need to hope. Not only hope, but we need to hope , and keep hoping for the promises of God knowing that who gives the promise is faithful as it was written.

The truth about this Journey called life is always easy. Sometimes it become tough and challenging for it is a journey we started by faith and it is a journey we need to learn to walk by faith. The truth is at times it could become long and tiresome. It is true at times we may find ourselves passing through some tough paths. We may find ourselves passing through the path filled with discouragement , or failure , or disappointment, or frustration, but we know God is with us all the way for he promises not to leave us neither forsake us. going through all with God is the greatest thing. We may face many challenging situations, or we may find ourselves walking in the valleys, to the extreme we may find ourselves walking in the valleys of the shadow of death, but we need to learn to stand up and say what David said when he finds himself in this types of situation. He said , " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." Psalms 23: 4.

Travelling along the line of life we may face all types challenges, temptations , discouragements, lack of faith , what ever the case could be. The question is, can we recall one our mind and find hope in God situation in life, but we need to have faith in God , and still believe in him. Not only we have to believe, but we have to keep believing. We need to rely on God and keep holding the promises of God for that is when we will find hope. We need to have faith in God for that is where our faith, inspirations, strength, and hope comes from, Therefore, we need to get close to God, learn to trust and depend on him , on his words.

What is the lesson from the writer of the book of Lamentations. There is one significant point he indicated, he recalled one thing to his mind , and he finds hope. That is the lesson for me , and that is compelled me to write this reflection. Can we recall one thing what God has done for us and find hope.

The truth is, life as a believers of the only true God never been easy. The fight at times would be though for we are fighting against Satan, the enemy of our soul , we are also fighting the things of this world and we are also fighting against the flesh. Therefore, sometimes we would find the fight getting a bit tough. We may find ourselves passing through the water, or passing the fire, but all what we need to know is we are just passing . We need just need to know is the Lord God is passing with us for he said I will be with you when you are passing through the river , and when you are passing through the fire. He would said don't be afraid for I have redeemed you, even he would say I know you by name. Therefore, we need to recall the voice of the Lord and find hope.

That is what came to my mind when I was praying and contemplating about my situation around me. When I looked back and reflect I could see the mercy, the love, and compassion of God and all his promises. This I recall to my mind, therefore I hope, is what came to my mind. The followings are the things came to my mind when look back in time. I know the Lord God has done great for me. I know he has done great things for me since he called me. He called me when I was confused, frustrated, mistreated, and taught me great things , and he showed me the path of life. He told me he he would help me get over all my problems I was facing at the time.

This I recall to my mind. Therefor, i hope. I recalled some of the messages from one of my favourite preacher. He preached on the three reason that any temptations would bring to your life. In another way he said the three things the enemy, Satan would bring concerning the truth. He said these temptations would come either from the enemy of our soul devil or from this world or from the flesh. It would come to pressure us or force us to leave the truth, or to change it with something like truth or it may come to force us sell it.

He indicated these temptations would come from enywhere , and anytime. Our answer should be get thy behind me Satan. We have to say no, tell him no a hundred time , no matter what he brings, in no matter form he brings it we need to learn to tell him no, get thy behind me satan. The enemy would come to tempt us as long as we live in this life and that is why the lord Jesus gives us his word to learn and to use it to attack the enemy and send him back to where he came from. We have to learn about who we are, we are the sons of God as a result God has given us a power to trade and stamp over every plan of the enemy. We have to learn our right as well as responsibility for it is true right come with responsibility. We would not be the partaker of our right whiteout fulfilling our responsibility. We have to know our responsibility, to learn , read, hear the word of God , to pray, testify the wonderful work of Jesus, what he did on the cross for all humanity, to bring forgiveness of sin and provide the hope of salivation. We are responsible to stand on this marvellous truth, share this amazing and liberating truth for anyone who believe. We are responsible to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel that was given to the apostle to be preached. This is the core massage of the gospel of Jesus Christ, " Repent, and be baptise everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. Acts 2:38. This is the message and we are responsible for taking this message to all for Jesus commanded us saying, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptised shall be saved; but he believes not shall be damned. Mark 16:15-16. Praise God for the gospel, for the good news of salivation.

These are the main point I was able to recall after taking time to pray and reflect. I know i have a lot in my mind and my heart, but these are main points the Lord brought to my mind while I was sitting in his feet.

I recall this to my mind. Therefor, I hope. I recall the words of the preacher that says, cut off all your reasons and excuses that prevent you worshipping the one true God, Jesus. I was able to recall the great lessons he taught by providing numerous examples from the scripture. He teaches and encourage the congregation to cut of all the reasons and excuses that prevent them not to follow Jesus and him alone. He indicated that we all may have reasons, even it could be very convening and legitimate reasons. He indicated that we can bring all these reasons and argue with anyone who could come to us, but he said it would not benefit us or bring the solution from God. Throughout his teaching he uses the reasons and the excuses Adam and his wife Eve brought after they failed to obey God. It was indicated in Genesis chapter 3 that Adam and Eve brought forward their own reason when God asked them what happened. This is the gist of the story. God first gave them a commandment after he puts them in the garden of Eden saying, " off every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, though shall not eat it of it: for in the day that thou eatest there off thou shall surly die." We know the story of Adam and Eve and what happened after, they disobey God's commandment and eat the tree and their eyes were append and realised they were naked. That is what God said to them and the reason and the excuses they brought to God. " And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this thatthou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. " Genesis chapter 3: 9-13. What happened in the story is they all give their own reason and excuses, not acknowledging their faults and sins.

The truth is we may ended up finding ourselves in this types of situation in our walk with God. The truth is many times we may find ourselves giving reasons and excuses to God why we are doing what we are doing, we may find ourselves giving as many reasons as possible, in fact convenient and convincing reason to convince God. What we need to learn from the story written in the bible it would not benefit us or avoid the judgement of God. However, what may change our situation is to acknowledge our fault and sins to God and receive his mercies to go forward with him. The good thing about this is we are living in the New Testament, in the time of mercy of God for it was written the blood of Jesus is able to cleans us from all forms of unrighteousness as it was written, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us oursins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. " 1st John 1: 8-10. Praise God for his word. Therefore, we don't have any excuses not to cut off our reasons and excuses prevent us not to follow and worship Jesus!

There is another point I recall, and therefor I hope. I recall the preacher preaching to stand to defend the truth. It is evident according to the bible there is only one truth, there is only one gospel, only one God, one doctrine, one way, as Jesus Christ himself said when the disciple asked him question about the way. He said, I am the way, the truth and the life . He said no one comes to the father except through him. It is evident throught the entire bible that there is only one God who created the heaven and the earth and all that is in it as it was written in the book of Genesis, and many other books. It was evident this God who created the heaven and the earth manifested in the flesh to become salivation for us. Thank Gof his word, for the gospel and its wonderful message of hope and love. Praise God for his wonderful promise that he has given to all who believe for he said, I go to prepare a place for you and I will come back again to take you to where I am as it was written in John chapter 14. Blessed be the name of Jesus for all his goodness and his mercies , and his love . This I recall to my mind. Therefor, I hope.