SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR
9/14/2014 8:54 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The
Prophet’s Distress PT-2
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Lamentations
3:19-39
Message of the
verses: We will look at the second
section of this main point in today’s SD.
The Lord’s Promises (Lamentations 3:19-39): “19 Remember my affliction and my wandering,
the wormwood and bitterness. 20 Surely my soul remembers And is bowed down
within me. 21 This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. 22
The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The LORD is my portion,"
says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." 25 The LORD is good to
those who wait for Him, To the person who seeks Him. 26 It is good that he
waits silently For the salvation of the LORD. 27 It is good for a man that he
should bear The yoke in his youth. 28 Let him sit alone and be silent Since He
has laid it on him. 29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, Perhaps there is
hope. 30 Let him give his cheek to the
smiter, Let him be filled with reproach. 31 For the Lord will not reject
forever, 32 For if He
causes grief, Then He will have compassion According to His abundant
lovingkindness. 33 For He does not afflict willingly Or grieve the sons
of men. 34 To crush under His feet All the prisoners of the land, 35 To deprive
a man of justice In the presence of the Most High, 36 To defraud a man in his
lawsuit-Of these things the Lord does not approve. 37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to
pass, Unless the Lord has
commanded it? 38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both
good and ill go forth? 39 Why
should any living mortal, or any man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?”
We have turned a corner in the book of Lamentations as
Jeremiah has now turned from his misery and focused on the mercy of God. It wasn’t because he was not still
experiencing pain and sorrow, but now he is calling to mind the faithfulness of
the Lord, and according to verses 19-21 this gave him hope. A. W. Tozer says the following about
hope: “The divine alchemy that
transmutes the base metal of adversity into gold.” “6 In this you greatly rejoice, even though
now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various
trials, 7 so that the proof of your
faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by
fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of
Jesus Christ; 8 and though you have not
seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him,
you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:6-18).”
Dr. Wiersbe writes “The realization of God’s mercy,
compassion, and faithfulness generated hope in Jeremiah’s soul, and his
contemplation of trouble because a confession of faith. Because the Lord loves us, He chastens us
(Heb. 12:5-11), but He doesn’t consume us; He disciplines, but He doesn’t
destroy.
“Unbelief causes us to look at God through our
circumstances, and this creates hopelessness; but faith enables us to look at
our circumstances through the reality of God, and this gives us hope. A radio listener once sent me a little rhyme
that has encouraged me on more than one occasion. ‘Look at yourself and you’ll
be depressed. Look at circumstances and
you’ll be distressed. Look at the Lord and you’ll be blessed!”
9/14/2014 9:18 AM
9/14/2014 8:04 PM
There are times when I read the commentary of Warren
Wiersbe and am so blessed by it that I just have to share what I have read in
my Spiritual Diary, and today is one of those times.
“If the Lord is ‘our portion’ (Ps. 73:26; 142:5), then we
are strengthened by that which cannot be used up or destroyed. God is our eternal source of strength, hope,
and blessing (Ps. 46:1). Our
circumstances change, and so do our feelings about them, but God is always
good, loving, merciful, and kind, and He never changes. ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today,
and forever’ (Heb. 13:8, NKJV). To build
life on that which is always changing is to invite constant unrest and
disappointment, but to build on the changeless and the eternal is to have peace
and confidence.
“As Jeremiah contemplated the character of God, he
realized that the best thing he and his people could do was to wait patiently
and silently for the Lord to work and accomplish His will in His time (vv.
25-28). God is gracious, God is great in
faithfulness, and God is good—not matter how we feel or what we see. But it isn’t enough just to sit and wait; we
must seek the Lord and draw closer to Him (vv. 25, 40). As for the children and youths who were
suffering, even they could learn from this experience and grow up to be strong
men and women (v. 27). Jeremiah was now
an old man, but he had suffered in his youth, so he knew what he was talking
about (Jer. 1:8; 17-19; 15:10, 15-17).
His youthful experiences of trial and opposition helped to prepare him
for his present ministry.
“The secret of victory in tough times is simply to submit
to the Lord and accept the fact that ‘the Lord has laid it on him’ (v.28
NIV). ‘It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him’ (1 Sam.
3:18 NKJV). We must bow before the Lord—even
putting our faces in the dust—and submit to His time, He will see us
through. In that hour of pain and
perplexity, Jeremiah laid hold of some wonderful assurances that con encourage
us today:
·
The Lord doesn’t
cast off His people and forget them (v. 31)
·
In the midst of
pain, we know He loves us (v. 32)
·
God doesn’t
enjoy chastening His own and He feels our pain (v. 33)
·
God sees the
way people treat us (vv. 34-36)
·
God is on the throne
and in control of all events (vv. 37-38)
·
If He chastens
us for our sins, we shouldn’t complain, for even His chastening is evidence of
His love (v. 39)
“As I wrote this section of
our study, I occasionally glanced at a picture on a nearby bookcase. It’s a reproduction of Rembrandt’s painting ‘Jeremiah
Lamenting The Destruction of Jerusalem,’ which Rembrandt painted in 1630. It depicts a sad old man, seated on a rock, a
copy of the Scriptures on his left and behind him on his right a scene of
people fleeing a burning city. If I
weren’t a Christian believer, the painting would discourage me, but I see in it
the truths Jeremiah shared in verses 19-39.
Like the prophet, we must live a day at a time and each morning draw
upon a new supply of God’s mercy. No
matter what the enemy says to us, we must remind ourselves that ‘the Lord is
good’ and He is never closer to us than when He chastens us.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I know that
trusting the Lord is difficult when He is chastening me for some sin that needs
to be chastens, but I must remember that when He is doing it that He truly
loves me so much that He cares that I live a life that will be pleasing to
me. I also think that the same thing
applies for when I am going through a difficult time, and the cause is not
because of sin. Job comes to mind when I
think about God doing something in a believers life that doesn’t have to do
with a sin.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord at all times, even when it is
difficult.
Memory verses for the
week: Colossians 3:1-9.
1 Therefore if you have
been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set
you mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden
with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who
is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in
glory. 5 Therefore consider the members
of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and
greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For
it is because of these things that the wrath of God has will come upon the sons
of disobedience; 7 and in them you once walked, when you were living in
them. 8 But now you also, put them all
aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid
aside the old self with its evil practices,
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “In the cave of Machpelah”
(Genesis 25:8-9).
Today’s Bible
question: “Name the wife of Uriah the
Hittite.
Answer in our next SD.
9/14/2014 8:38 PM
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