Devotion in Motion: New Every Morning

21This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope.

22 Through the LORD’S mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not.

23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:21-23 (NKJV)

By Bro. John L. Cash, “Country Preacher Dad”

We don’t get snow very often here in Mississippi. Spencer has lived his whole life here, and in 18 years he remembers only 3 or 4 good snows.  Even though we don’t get much snow here, everybody loves it. We got a few flakes a few months ago, and the teachers at the elementary school let all the children go outside and play in it for as long as it lasted.  They were thrilled.

Growing up in Arkansas, we had at least a couple good snows every year. My favorite thing was to wake up in the morning and look out at the front yard all covered in white before I went outside to get the morning paper. There’s something wonderful about the purity of new snow—and being the first person to walk on it when you go outside to get the paper. Later that same day the snow will be tracked and puddled and muddy and black. But if it snows again that night, when you get up in the morning you have a perfectly pure white world. All the ugliness is covered up. The snow is new in the morning.

Today’s Scripture lesson (at the top) always makes me think of snow. The Psalmist writes that the LORD’s compassions “fail not”. They are “new every morning”. No matter how big of a wreck we make of a day, when we get up the next morning it’s a new world. It’s a new front yard, covered with a fresh cover of pure white snow. Like the snow, God’s care and compassion are new every morning. In his great joy the Psalmist exclaims to God “Great is Your faithfulness!”

Dear mamas, today we are blessed with things that are new. We have a brand new year and even a brand new decade! Let’s pledge our hearts and hands to become more obedient to our Lord and Saviour as we start this new week. And if we slip, we will not be discouraged, but we will immediately come back to seek cleansing and strength from our Heavenly Father who loves us. Let’s make a new start for Him in this new year—rejoicing in His blessing that is new every morning.

Dr. John L. Cash is the “Country Preacher Dad” (Sing that to the title to the tune of “Secret Agent Man) He was raised in Stuttgart, Arkansas, and is beginning his 25th year of being a country preacher in the piney woods five miles south of the little town of Hickory, Mississippi. He and his lovely wife, Susan, and his sons, Spencer (age 18) and Seth (age 15) live in the parsonage next door to the Antioch Christian Church (where the Cash boys some years have played outside in Bermuda shorts on Christmas Day.) You can write him with a note at extramailbox@juno.com.