December 31, 2025 

Lamentations 3:19-33 rises from deep sorrow, written by someone who has seen devastation, loss, and suffering firsthand. The writer remembers affliction, bitterness, and wandering, yet in the middle of grief chooses to remember something else as well: the steadfast love of the Lord. These verses do not deny pain or rush past it. Instead, they hold grief and hope together, affirming that God’s mercy has not ended and His compassion has not failed. Even when life feels unbearable, God remains faithful, present, and patient, offering mercy that is renewed again and again.

Devotional:

The end of the year invites reflection, whether we want it to or not. Calendars turn. Social media fills with highlights and resolutions. And quietly, we begin to look back. For some, this year held moments of joy and growth. For others, it carried loss, disappointment, or changes that reshaped everything. Many of us hold a mixture of all of it.

Lamentations does not ask us to pretend the year was good. It does not suggest that pain should be minimized or quickly reframed. The writer remembers affliction honestly. He names bitterness, suffering, and wandering. Faith here is not optimism. Faith is memory. A deliberate choice to remember God’s character when circumstances do not offer comfort.

“There is one thing I call to mind,” the writer says, “and therefore I have hope.” Not because life improved. Not because the pain ended. Hope comes from remembering who God is. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. God’s mercy did not run out this year. His compassion was not exhausted by your questions, your grief, or your weariness.

Looking back may stir complicated emotions. You may remember prayers that felt unanswered. Losses that still ache. Seasons where faith felt thin. This passage does not shame those memories. Instead, it invites you to place them alongside another truth: God stayed. God did not leave when the days grew heavy. God did not withdraw when you struggled to believe. God remained faithful even when you were simply enduring one day at a time.

Faithful presence does not always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like enough strength to get through the morning. Sometimes it looks like one person who showed up when you needed them. Sometimes it looks like surviving something you once thought would break you. These are not small mercies. They are evidence of God’s quiet faithfulness.

As this year closes, you do not need to resolve it. You do not need to make sense of everything that happened. You are invited simply to remember. Remember the God who carried you through days you would rather forget. Remember the mercy that met you even when joy felt distant. Remember that God’s compassion renews, not because the calendar changes, but because His character does not.

This year did not have to be easy for God to be faithful. And tomorrow, God will still be here.

Action:

Take a moment to name one place where you experienced God’s strength or mercy this year, even if the season was painful.

Prayer:

Faithful God, as this year ends, I bring You everything it held, the joy, the grief, the questions, and the fatigue. Thank You for staying with me through it all. Help me trust Your mercy as I step into what comes next. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Thought for the Day:

God’s faithfulness is not measured by the year we had, but by the God who stayed.

As this year comes to a close, many of us look back with mixed emotions. Lamentations 3 reminds us that faith does not require pretending the year was easy or good. Scripture makes space for grief, sorrow, and unanswered questions, while also holding onto one steady truth: God’s steadfast love never ceased. God stayed when life felt heavy, when prayers were hard to find, and when the days were simply about enduring.

We don’t have to make sense of everything that happened this year to trust that God was present in it. God’s mercy met us again and again, often quietly, often unnoticed at the time. As the year ends, we remember not a perfect story, but a faithful God who walked with us through every season.