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!
I hope you'll join us on the pages of Scripture as well as in conversation! CommentsWed, 10 Mar 2010 10:40:07 am Sister, You said it all, right here: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 5:10:59 pm Something from my notes jumped out at me either today or yesterday (it's all blurr now). When the enemy stripped the Temple, they didn't die as the Israelite had when he touched the Ark. Why? My study said that God was no longer protecting the Temple, His presence had left. I thought that was interesting. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 6:10:03 pm You are so right! We are marked by His presence and sealed for Him alone! Amen! Leave a Reply |  
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