When I agreed to write a follow-up to the testimony I shared for Mandy’s series Journey of Healing, I wasn’t sure there was a Glorifying update to my story.  My life fell apart, I got mad and asked God where He had been during it all, He led me to Isaiah 54:7-10 in answer to my loaded question, and He’s been picking up the pieces since.  The. End. 

I knew God had been working to heal me and grow me into the woman He had designed me to be, and I knew that process wouldn’t be complete this side of eternity.  So I agreed to tell more of my story and I prayed the Lord would show me just what I should share.

I had left off with an open ending of sorts, because that’s just what our life with the Lord is like.  Sometimes we’re so busy living the season we’re in that we can’t see a good reason to visit the one we just left.  Often times, there’s too much pain in the past, or too much time gone by.  Returning can’t mean reliving, there’s just no Life in that.  What makes going back again worthwhile is seeing God reveal more of His love for you.  More of His sovereignty and His might.  More of His faithfulness and His providence.

The prior testimony painted a powerful picture of God’s amazing healing, one I stare at some days and just praise God I’m on my knees, broken before Him and not just broken like I had been before Him.

What connects that story to this new creation I am in Christ? 


Head over to Brokenness into Beauty for more of my journey of healing

SonShines, are you just as amazed by our God as I am right now?  If you’re reading along, I’m pretty sure you’re singing His praises right along with me today.  Lamentations never struck me as being a book I’d understand.  And I was right.  I can’t wrap my brain around it, but the Holy Spirit is interceding on my behalf to impart some much-needed wisdom.  Praise God for large mercies! 

I’ll let you in on a secret—God directs me to this book or that and He sends me to studies I’ve never considered taking on.  Were I the one choosing what to spend time on and when, chances are I’d have studied Psalm, Proverbs, and Isaiah first instead of James, Esther, and Daniel.  Reason being, I’d never cracked one of those books before in my life!  I was too blinded by my own notions of the stories that lie therein and I suppose I thought they’d be too heady for me to handle on my own.  Boy, was I right…and oh so wrong.  Sure, I’d never have made it through any of those studies on my own.  Truth be told, I don’t think I ever would have tried it on my own.  Had the Lord not lit a fire under my cushy tush, I’d still be sitting here thinking I’d never be able to understand the Bible. 

Today, it hurts to look at my life prior to living in the Word, but in a good way that reminds me of how God is continually growing His children.  What a blessing the Living Word of the Living God is in this fallen world!  

Lamentations 2 paints us a revolting, heartbreaking image of the realities God's chosen people faced due to that first fall and our resulting bondage to sin.  Divorced from the Lord and dejected by the world, they were starved and hopeless as the atrocities ran rampant in their lives.  Still, some held out for God's wrath to end in His mercy.  Beautifully, these people knew their God and prayed for His love to overcome His anger toward them.  Owning their sin wasn't enough, repenting wasn't enough, only Jesus would prove to be enough to mend the divide created by our transgressions.  Divided by God, we can barely stand in this world.  Delivered by grace, we soar!  That grace comes not for our sake, but for God's.  He loves us and wants us and continues to give us grace for His sake, we'll never deserve it but our Father finds us worth every bit.

I think these two verses speak far beyond the historical documentation they hold, straight to the very heart of our need for the Savior. 

"My eyes are spent with weeping; my stomach churns; my bile is poured out on the ground because of the destruction of my people, because infants and babes faint in the streets of the city" (Lamentations 2:11, NRSV).

"Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the presence of the Lord! Lift your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street" (Lamentations 2:19, NRSV).

Our utter depravity when left to our own devices is gut-wrenching, heart-shattering, and destructive.  Mankind hasn't changed.  Devouring the dead in order to cling to life is widely considered a harsh but necessary way to survive in the worst of circumstances, even today.  Desperation didn't die with Jesus.  Desperation dies when Hope is alive in us.  Salvation means never acting in desperation again and it must mean helping others to see they don't need to make decisions they can't live with either.  Being the hands and feet of Jesus cultivates an awareness of Christ--it gives Hope to the weary.

Here are a few questions to consider as you read and share your heart, but please know you don't have to stick to these suggestions!  Share what the Lord is showing you and He will work wonders among us!

• What images struck you most in this chapter of history?
• Did you find Hope in your reading?
• Do you have any desperate decisions you feel the Hope of Jesus would have changed?
  
• How can you fill a need today to alleviate the desperation beating another down? 

Tomorrow we'll be discussing chapter 3 of Lamentations. 
I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation!

“How lonely sits the city that once was full of people!  How like a widow she has become, she that was a princess among the provinces has become a vassal” (Lamentations 1:1, NRSV).

A vassal.  The word just invites you to read further, but let’s linger a moment to grasp the reality of this prophetic scene God has painted through the author many scholars believe to be Jeremiah.  Amid the definition of the Hebrew translated to vassal, one aspect leaped off the screen and straight through my heart.  Levy.  From princess to levy.  That’s bound to be profound if we just look close enough.  Yes, I really think like that, it’s a tad weird, but it’s rooted in a hope that does not disappoint.  We’re dealing with an infallible God and His word selection is just as incapable of falling short of Divine.  Time for a bit of definition.  No matter how familiar a term, digging is sure to unearth some Scriptural treasure!  That’s Biblical booty, for you pirate types.

By definition, a levy is an imposing or collecting, as of a tax, by authority or force.

God is collecting the debt of our sins by force due to our inability to redeem ourselves.  He’s out to repo the souls lent us the moment He first breathed life into man.  For your good and mine, by force but not against our will.  We’ve got to accept salvation, but it is the sheer grace and force of God that brings it to fruition.  The southern church girl in me just needs to interject a hallelujah here!  Can I get an amen?

SonShines, I am finding this book absolutely fascinating.  Being a poet at heart, all books of a poetic nature just shake my soul.  When you add the power of prophecy to the writing, you know you’re in for a real and True treat--and Jesus is buying!  Debt paid in full.  Let’s keep sight of that gift as we tap into our own lamentations.  We can’t ignore our pain or our sin, but we can give every bit of it over to the Lord and He doesn’t mind our lamenting.  Am I the only one relieved by not having to pretend things are fine when I’m talking to my Father? 

God wants the real us, the true to the soul us, and that includes are unique voices.  The Harper Study Bible’s introduction to the book tells of how “all chapters except 3 have twenty-two verses; chapter 3 has sixty-six” and “part of the book follows an alphabetic acrostic.”  The Author’s Word, the writer’s voice.  I just love it!

Enough from me, let’s talk about this first chapter!  Here are a few questions and thoughts to ponder, but don’t feel limited by them.  Share your heart!  See you in the comments!

• What verse did you most identify with?
• Did any specific image or word strike you in your reading?
• How did you approach this chapter? {study, devotionals, straight read, memorizing...}
• Have you ever felt passed by in your pain? 
• Are you more likely to lament when you see yourself as the cause of your suffering?

Tomorrow we'll be discussing chapter 2 of Lamentations. 
I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation!

All too often, I hear heavy hearts admit they rarely read Scripture.  It's a confession I've bashfully made myself and I get it, really I do.  I get that mornings start rough or smooth as being shot through a cannon.  Later turns to when I can and soon the promise becomes tomorrow.  I've been there.  I've lived there most of my life, actually.  

That's what these seven days are all about.  I want us to know how possible it is to crack the Bible before taking a crack at the day, and how life changing.  I want us to stop letting the enemy deceive us into thinking our days are filled with importance that takes priority over our Father.  I want us to trust that God will make time enough for us on those days we've made time for Him.

Of course, simply getting in the Word is our main objective here--by getting to know our Father, His Son, and the advocate we have in the Holy Spirit, we will know Truth!  As an added goal this week, I'd love for us each to strive to make God first in every day.  Whether with this study or with Christ alone, let's race to see our Lord each morning this week!  

I know how easy it is to skip breakfast as the day takes off in a blur and how sometimes it's even easier to skip Jesus in the zip of it all.  Have you ever noticed the way each food decision is affected by skipping that first meal?  Once your body catches up to the day even that cardboard thingy around your Frappa-whats-a-majig seems like a better meal than none.  Bad food decisions will be made, or at least harder to resist.  Skipping Jesus eventually leaves us spiritually starved and wide open to bad spiritual choices.  I know you've seen what I'm talking about.  Maybe you've seen the inverse, too. 

Stepping into the presence of God leaves us fueled for the battles ahead, shining bright enough to direct a few thoughts heavenward, and equipped to make the choices best fitted to the path God has carved before us.

I know you want that just as I do, so let's lift one another in prayer as we set out to spend this week in Lamentations.  May we pursue Jesus, as we let the rest of the world fall away--don't worry, it won't fall apart!  We've got a mighty, faithful Father, SonShines!

Spending some time in the Word each day this week is sure to bless and nourish our weary souls!  Don't leave things between you and the pages, bring your Bible to the feet of Jesus and let Him tell you His story. 

Before reading Lamentations 1 today, pray for God to lend you wisdom and then linger for a while in conversation with the King of kings!  I'll meet you here tomorrow to chat all about what we discover as we read this chapter together!  Bring some questions, insights, coffee, and a friend! 

{ps...each day's participants will be entered in a special Godly giveaway}