Lamentations 3-5
Jeremiah laments over the destruction of Jerusalem and God’s
judgment and exile of His people. Jeremiah feels lonely and abandoned. He cries
out words of mourning; "Even when I
call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer." (Lamentations 3:8,
NIV) Jeremiah is as down as a man can get. He is spiritually and emotionally
spent. He poured out all he had proclaiming the word of God. Words of warning
of the coming disaster, but the people would not listen. God fulfilled His word
and all Jeremiah had known was gone.
We all face times of grief. We all face times when it seems
like our prayers are going nowhere. We wonder where God is in the midst of our
struggles. We wonder why the things that are happening are happening to us. We may
not see our hometown destroyed by enemy invaders. We may not see our friends
and neighbors carried off in exile. But we have times when we battle depression
and our souls are downcast. But we do not have to stay there.
"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.”" (Lamentations 3:21-24, NIV) Though everything may look like there is no
hope, we have access to the author of hope. We can always turn to Jesus and
know that He is there for us. He intercedes for us as we lift our voices to
God. God is a judging God, but He is also a compassionate God.
When we are suffering,
if we will remember that God is good all the time and all the time God is good,
we can find hope in the midst of the hopeless situation. God wants what is best
for us. We can rest in the fact that what we face on this earth is nothing
compared to eternity. This world is not our home. We may face struggles, we
will face struggles on this earth, but the worst thing that can happen is we
die, and to die is gain as Paul wrote. We can live for Jesus no matter what the
trials and when we die we will see Him face to face.
"Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put
your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God."
(Psalm 42:11, NIV)
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