When You Need a Fresh Start After Yesterday

Good morning. This is Morning Prayer from Bearing Fruit.

Some of the most hopeful words in the Bible come from a book of grief called Lamentations. If you let people down yesterday, and it was still with you when you woke up, that's the book we're opening this morning. Let's bring this to God together.

In Lamentations chapter three, verses twenty-two to twenty-four, the writer says this.

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness! “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

Lamentations 3:22-24

Lamentations was written over the ruins of Jerusalem, most likely soon after the Babylonians burned the city and its temple. The book is honest that the people's own sin had brought much of this on them.

In chapter three, the writer says his strength is gone, and his hope from the Lord with it. Just before our verses, he says this.

Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall. Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. Yet I call this to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Lamentations 3:19-21

Wormwood and gall stand for bitterness. He can still taste all of it. Then he calls something else to mind. He doesn't find hope in a rebuilt city, because nothing has been rebuilt. He finds it in the Lord's loving devotion, the steady love God promised His people. In the middle of our verses, he turns from talking about God to talking to Him, and says, “great is Your faithfulness!” He's lost his home, and he says the Lord is still his portion.

Maybe this morning you're standing at the back door while the dog wanders the yard, and yesterday is playing over in your head. A colleague stayed late to finish the report you'd promised. Or a friend answered your apology with two words, it's fine, and you know it isn't.

God's new mercies didn't clear away the rubble. The city was still in ruins when he wrote this. You may still have an apology to make today, and you won't make it alone.

Where yesterday's failure was real sin, John tells us where to take it.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1:9

John calls God faithful too. A few lines later, he shows why forgiving us is just.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He Himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins

1 John 2:1-2

Jesus died for those sins and rose again, and He speaks for you before the Father.

The prophet Micah ends his book praising God for His mercy to the remnant of Israel, the people left after judgment.

Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

Micah 7:18-19

Those words were first for Israel, and they show us what God is like. Paul wrote to the church in Rome about everyone who belongs to Jesus.

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:1

So you can start this morning on God's faithfulness, wherever yesterday left you. His mercies were new before you even woke up.

Let's pray. You can pray these words with me, out loud or in your heart.

Father, yesterday is still on my mind as I pray. Jesus died on the cross for my sins, yesterday's too, and on the third day You raised Him. So the way to You is still open this morning.

You've been faithful all night, while I slept and while I lay awake. Your love didn't run out with yesterday. “Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail.” No one is like You. You pardon sin, and You delight to show mercy.

You saw all of yesterday, Father. I let people down. I said I'd do something, and I didn't. I was short with people who'd done nothing to deserve it. When it went wrong, I made excuses, and I let someone else carry what was mine. These are my sins, and I'm sorry. Your word says, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Jesus is my advocate with You, and He's the sacrifice for these sins. I'm trusting You to forgive me and make me clean. Some of yesterday was just a hard day, and I have limits. I bring You that too. Carry it with me.

Now help me with what's left. Show me who I need to talk to today, and help me do it soon, before I talk myself out of it. Let me say sorry plainly, without a speech about why it happened. If someone's still hurt, don't let me rush them. Where I can put something right, help me do it. Where I can't, help me leave it with You. And keep me from going over it in my head all day. That won't fix anything, and You've already dealt with my guilt.

Your word says, “You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.” Help me leave them there. Paul wrote, “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” I belong to Him, so I won't spend today trying to earn my way back to You. I may have lost some people's trust. You haven't let go of me. I'll say it with the writer of Lamentations. “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”

I pray for the people I let down yesterday. You know their names. Bless them today, more than I could. Where I hurt them, heal it. Where trust has worn thin, help me rebuild it honestly. And I pray for anyone else who woke up wishing they could undo yesterday. Someone reading their apology for the fifth time before they press send. Someone who's let people down so often they've stopped expecting anything better of themselves. Show them Your mercy is new for them too.

Father, this is a new day, and I'm starting it with You. My sins from yesterday are forgiven, and the rest of yesterday is in Your hands. Some of it I'll still have to face today, so stay close to me while I do. When it comes back to me in the middle of the afternoon, remind me that Jesus speaks for me. When I see the people I let down, give me humility and kindness. If I fail again today, let me run straight to You, without waiting for tomorrow. Your mercies haven't run out, and they never will. “They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!”

In Jesus' name, amen.

Take a moment of quiet now, and bring Him whatever's in front of you today.

Hear this blessing from Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-5