When the Splendor Is Gone

Hi, and welcome to today's devotional reading from Our Daily Bread.

Today's encouragement is titled, When the Splendor is Gone, and it was written by Dave Brannon. I can never recapture the splendor that was our daughter, Melissa. Fading from my memory are those wonderful times when we watched her joyfully playing high school volleyball.

And it's sometimes hard to remember the shy smile of contentment that crossed her face when we were doing family activities. Her death at age 17 dropped a curtain on the joy of her presence. In the Book of Lamentations, Jeremiah's words show he understood that the heart can be punctured. My splendor is gone, he said, and all that I had hoped from the Lord.

His situation was far different from yours and mine. He had preached God's judgment, and he saw Jerusalem defeated. The splendor was gone because he felt defeated, isolated, and abandoned by God. But that's not the end of his story.

Light shined through. Jeremiah, burdened and broken, stammered out, I have hope. Hope that comes from realizing that because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed. And here is just what we need to remember when the splendor is gone. God's compassion never fails.

They are new every morning. Even in our darkest days, God's great faithfulness shines through. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Lamentations, chapter 3, verses 13 through 24. He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughing stock of all my people.

They mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and given me gall to drink. He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace.

I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, My splendor is gone in all that I had hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.

I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.

They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness, I say to myself. The Lord is my portion.

Therefore I will wait for Him. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, that You are the God of compassion. Even while we walk through the valley of darkness, morning will follow as we remember Your compassion and Your faithfulness. We lift up those who are hurting to You today and pray that they would find their peace and hope restored in You. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.