We are not Consumed

"Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning:  Great is thy faithfulness.  I say to myself "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him."  Lamentations 3:22-24

I was reading this passage today and it has completely spoken to my heart lately so I wanted to share my thoughts.  The word that sticks out to me in this passage is consumed.  It evokes such imagery in my mind.  I know so many people who have felt consumed.  Consumed with the loss of a precious baby you only held for mere minutes, consumed with the pregnancy that is just not happening, the crushing loss of an adoption that has fallen through, the devastation and depression of losing a job and the inability to support your family, the illness that is sucking the energy you want to be providing to your children, the stress and anxiety of ever-increasing prices but ever-decreasing salaries, the marriage that is falling apart around you, the horror of losing every single earthly possession in a tornado.  But this verse above gives me so much hope. Each one of those scenarios has happened to a woman I know.  A woman who in the midst of Satan trying to consume her with hopelessness; she put her hope in Christ.  Because in truth, we are NOT consumed.    Because of His compassion, His love, His grace, His mercy, His faithfulness, we are NOT consumed.  We just have to keep our eyes focused on Him, we have to wait on Him.  We are on this earth for a mili-second compared to our eternity with Christ.  I know that thought gives me hope and I pray it does the same for you.