New Mercies for a New Year: Hope from the Ashes

The first week of January carries its own kind of quiet weight.

The lights of December have dimmed. The calendar flips forward. Many people step into the new year with a strange mix of hope and heaviness—hope that things will change, heaviness because so much around us seems to be unraveling. Perhaps you’ve felt this.

You don’t need me to list the headlines. Political tension, cultural decay, violence in our cities, financial pressures, a nation pulling apart at the seams. Many believers enter the new year whispering, “Lord, what is happening to our world?”

But we aren’t the first generation to ask that question.

More than 2,500 years ago, the prophet Jeremiah stood in the smoldering ruins of Jerusalem—his city destroyed, his people broken, his nation humiliated. Babylon had come like a flood. The streets were filled with the unthinkable. The Temple—the place where God’s presence had dwelt for centuries—was gone.

If you have felt discouraged by the direction of our culture, imagine how Jeremiah felt.
He wasn’t scrolling headlines; he was living inside them.

Yet right there—right in the rubble—Jeremiah pens one of the Bible’s most hopeful declarations. It shines like a diamond against black velvet. It’s the turning point of the entire book of Lamentations:

“But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
His mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is Your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:21–23).

These words weren’t written from a mountaintop. They were written from ground zero.

That’s what makes them so powerful for us right now.

The Hope That Rises From the Ashes

The Hebrew words Jeremiah chose carry a richness our English translations only hint at.

When he says “the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,” the phrase “steadfast love” comes from the word ḥesed—God’s covenant loyalty. It means a love that does not evaporate under pressure. A love that does not abandon you even if you abandon Him. A love that stays when everything else walks away. A love of devotion, compassion, and forgiveness.

When Jeremiah says God’s “mercies never come to an end,” he uses the word raḥamim—a word tied to a mother’s womb. It is tender, protective, compassionate love. It’s the kind of mercy that sees your brokenness and moves toward you, not away from you.

And when he says God’s mercies are “new every morning,” the picture is breathtaking:

Every sunrise is a fresh delivery of God’s compassion.
A new supply.
A renewed portion.
Yesterday’s sorrows don’t diminish today’s mercy.

The desolation around Jeremiah hadn’t changed. But what he remembered changed him.

A Moment of Choosing in a Difficult Time

If we’re honest, we often begin a new year staring at the ashes—what went wrong, what we lost, what we fear may come next. Some look at the cultural landscape and feel exactly what Jeremiah felt: “This isn’t the world I grew up in.”

And yet, just like Jeremiah, we have a choice: We can rehearse the darkness or recall God’s faithfulness.

Jeremiah makes a conscious decision: “But this I call to mind …”

He chooses to remember what he knows about God instead of what he sees around him.

That is the hinge of hope. Not denial, not wishful thinking, but deliberate remembering.

Why This Matters in January 2026

We don’t know what this year will bring. We don’t control the political winds. We can’t predict cultural tides. But we can anchor ourselves to the character of God, just as Jeremiah did.

This year is certain to bring challenges—but every morning of every challenge will arrive with fresh mercy attached to it.

This year may bring unexpected turns—but God’s ḥesed, His loyal, unfailing love, will not run out.

This year may reveal pressures we didn’t anticipate—but His faithfulness will prove greater than every fear we carry.

If Jeremiah could find hope in the ashes of Jerusalem, you and I can find hope in the uncertainty of a new year. Not because the world is stable. But because God is.

A New Year’s Posture

As you step into this first week of January, here is the simple truth from Lamentations that can reshape your year:

Every morning you wake up is a reminder that God has not stopped loving you, not stopped leading you, and not stopped providing mercy for whatever you face.

You don’t walk into this year alone. You don’t walk into it empty-handed. And you certainly don’t walk into it unprepared.

God has already stocked the shelves of your future with fresh mercies.

So lift your head. Take a breath. Let Jeremiah’s words rise inside you like the dawn:

“Great is Your faithfulness.”

…

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