October 30, 2016
Jeremiah’s lament for Israel’s condition turned from complaint to calling. He invited his people to join him in repentance. “Test” your motives. “Examine” your actions. Where either are out of alignment with the Lord’s, let us “return!” Our criterion is Christ and His Word. Wherever we have moved or acted contrary to Christ, let us repent and return to Him!
October 29, 2015
Lamentations was written to “lament” (to grieve and mourn) the destruction of Jerusalem by the prophet Jeremiah. It calls the remnant of Judah to “cry out” to the Lord in their distress. Like the book of Job, it puzzles over the results of evil and suffering in the world. But unlike Job, which dealt with apparently undeserved evil, Jeremiah lamented a suffering that was of the people’s own making. It is a difficult book to read. Yet, it reminds us of our need to genuinely repent of sin and the suffering that inevitably follows. It calls us to lament over sin’s consequence and to beg God’s forgiveness, mercy and restoration. Only those who have hit life’s bottom seem to understand this lament of Jeremiah. Only those who are ready to “cry out in the night” find that these words give expression to the state of their hearts.
October 30, 2014
The prophet Jeremiah cried out to God for the lost city of Jerusalem, and for his own homelessness and suffering. Yet, in the midst of this sorrowful lament, Jeremiah looked to God for his inheritance. Rather than look to worldly things, he looked to the Lord Himself as his reward. Jeremiah’s hope was in God. We can know this hope. And we can know it with even better understanding because of Christ. We can set our hope fully on Jesus (1 Pet. 1:13).
October 30, 2013
Regardless of our circumstance we can “call to mind” the Lord’s love and mercy, reminding ourselves of His steadfastness and faithfulness. While the night may seem overwhelming and dark, the Lord’s mercies are new every morning. Remember the Lord and have hope again.