Before your eyelids opened today …
Need something to give a bit of skibidi to your day? How about, Jeremiah’s contention; “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” And it gets better, “His mercies never come to an end – they are new every morning.” That’s textbook Jeremiah, straight from his latest podcast in Lamentations 3:22-23. It’s not a sentiment or a “Pippa says” comment. It’s not embroidered on a pillow or floating in some Instagram sunrise featuring parrots, Guinea pigs or startled cats either, it’s a declaration wrung out in the face of despair, spoken by a man watching his city burn.
Jerusalem had fallen. The covenant people were broken, their temple razed, their streets filled with grief. This isn’t a verse made for a coffee mug or the faux leather cover of your mobile phone. It’s truth gasped out between sobs. It’s intense, meaningful and essential. Jeremiah wasn’t preaching ‘just pull your socks up’ optimism. Let this sink in, reach into this because it’s relevant for today, your day, as it is unleashed in the hours ahead. Jeremiah was anchoring reality to the character of God. It’s a radical, compelling assertion, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.” Never.
Now look closely. Steadfast. Love. Never. Ceases. That’s not the language of a passing feeling. That’s covenant Cross-focused talk. It’s fierce, unshakable, and rooted not in us but in Him. Written with conviction. And it demands something from you.
You woke up this morning (apparently!), and maybe you reached for your phone before you prayed, gave thanks or mumbled in tongues. Maybe the oppressive to-do list hit before the Word did. But this Scripture doesn’t wait for your schedule. It intrudes. It calls you to attention. First thing, because every single morning, without exception, mercy stands at your door before your alarm clock does. Not mercy shaped by how well you performed yesterday (or didn’t). Not mercy conditioned by your feelings or your faithfulness. No! It’s new mercy. Fresh. Not leftovers. Not reheated sentiment. New. Brand new.
And this mercy is not passive. It calls you to act. To respond. To reorder everything. “New every morning” is not a sweet reassurance. It’s a summons. The mercy that meets you is the same mercy that commands you. Because if God gives mercy, He means for you to do something with it. You do not receive daily mercies to drift through life unchanged. You’re not here to coast. If mercy is new, then so must be your obedience, your trust and your surrender to Him and His purpose for, with and in you.
Jeremiah doesn’t say “God understands your struggle, He gets you.” He says God’s love doesn’t stop. That’s different. God is not catering to your weariness. He is calling you up into His purposes. Every morning, you are summoned to align your will with His. This is not about you being understood. This is about you being transformed.
It’s easy to say “God is faithful.” Harder to live like it. Harder to rise each day and put yesterday’s failures to death, and walk again in newness. But that’s what’s offered. A reset. Not a soft reboot, but a complete reorientation – with extra ‘ram’ of purpose, vision and courage added. You get out of bed not to repeat the same old routine but to enter again into the call of God on your life. First things first. Not coffee. Not news. Not scrolling. God.
And here’s where it presses in. If His mercies are new every morning, then your excuses from yesterday don’t hold. Yesterday’s compromise, yesterday’s silence, yesterday’s indifference, all of it gets confronted. Not condemned. Confronted. Because mercy gives no shelter to apathy. It frees you to obey. God has given you a new day.
This is the demand Jeremiah places on you like a snuggly fitting hoodie. To wake up and remember that mercy is a gift with purpose. God is not generous for sentiment’s sake. He pours mercy to move you, to set your feet on the path again, to cause worship, obedience, repentance, courage, clarity. You’re not being fussed. You’re being equipped.
“The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end … they are new every morning.” Get up, make a coffee, eat your breakfast and then live like it’s true.
Because it is.