Hey everybody. This is Mary Demuth and this is Pray Every Day where I pray through the Bible verse by verse with joy and intention.

And it's my grateful privilege to be able to do that.

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's long extended episode in celebration of Pray Every Day being seven years old and starting our eighth year.

And so if you didn't listen to yesterday's,

you definitely want to go back and listen to the episode. It's actually 2943 and February

1st, if you want to look that up. Thank you again just for all of your faithfulness to this

show. And I'm just so grateful and humbled to be a part of it.

And thanks to William and to Kristen

for all their hard work behind the scenes.

I deeply appreciate that.

All right, today we are reading Lamentations,

chapter 3, verses 31 through 36 in the World English Bible, and this is what

it says, for the Lord will not cast off forever, for though he causes grief, yet he will have

compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindness. For he does not afflict willingly,

nor grieve the children of men. To crush underfoot

all the prisoners of the earth to turn away the right of a man before the face of the most high.

To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve. Who is he who says, and it comes to

pass when the Lord doesn't command it?

Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?

Why should a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Let us search and try our ways and turn again to Yahweh.

Let's lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.

...