Day 58
Lamentations
Well, I guess if there was ever any question of whether or not God keeps his heavenly word, this book answers it. Yes. When God warns what will happen, you best not do what he warned about not doing because the punishment he also warned about will happen! Ha!
More seriously, God's wrath is terrible. God does judge, and render judgment. The people wept because they felt God abandoned them, yet they were the ones who abandoned him.
Lamentations 2:17
The Lord has done what he planned; he has fulfilled his word, which he decreed long ago. He has overthrown you without pity, he has let the enemy gloat over you, he has exalted the horn of your foes.
Yet even in that, God is righteous and is good to those who hope in him...
Lamentations 3:19-26
I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall....Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him." The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him, it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
Lamentations 3:31
For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
Lamentations 3:40
Let us examine our was and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
I kinda expected this book to be a total downer. And it is because of the destruction. But still I find HOPEISM. More than I expected. Maybe I'm missing something... I guess in my own way, I've felt like I was living Lamentations for a few years now. The destruction of autism, seizures, my son's declining health -- just so much devastation in all of that. I remember all those afflictions. The choking of seizures, the sound of shattered teeth. I can taste the bitterness of them still.
Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail...
I'm sure the author meant to say HOPEISM there. And NEVER QUIT. Two words I have clung to for so long now, and now I know where they came from! The Lamentations of my "Life with Autism!"
That comforts me so much! His compassions never quit. They are new every morning.
So many times I've fallen into the trap of thinking it was his challenges that have been new every morning. But no. His compassions through those challenges have been new every morning. His unfailing love for me and my son has been new each and every morning.
I have yet to be consumed by those challenges because indeed, great is his faithfulness!
Lamentations 3:31
For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love.
Lamentations 3:40
Let us examine our ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
That's always a hard one to swallow...when we're in a period of seeming silence from God, when we feel we are being punished by God as they were in this book -- it's hard to have to stop and look within to see if there is any cleansing of our own sins to deal with. We may think we're cast off forever, he may indeed bring grief for our disobedience, but he will show compassion, --so great is his unfailing love for us!
I just marvel at that.
I cannot count how many time I've been in Lamentations 3:55 --- I called on your name, O Lord, from the depths of the pit. You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear."
No matter how deep the pit you feel you are in -- God will always, always, always, be deeper. In the depth of that darkness, you can cry out to him and he will answer, even if in but the faintest of whispers, "Do not fear."
This book ends with Lamentations 5:20-22
Why do you always forget us? Why do you forsake us so long? Restore us to yourself, O Lord, that we may return; renew our days as of old unless you have utterly rejected us and are angry with us beyond measure.
I think God asks us the same questions...
Why do you always forget me?
Why do you forsake me for so long?
Restore me to your country, your community, your church, your home, your heart, that I may return.
Revive your faith, unless you have utterly rejected me and are angry with me beyond measure.
