Good morning,
I
am so thankful that when God gives us bad news to share with God’s
enemies, he also gives his kids good news to steady our hands and
hearts. We know that he will never leave us or forsake us. We know
that God’s angels are assigned to God’s kids to make sure that what
happens stays exactly within his guidelines. Jeremiah lived out these
truths decade after decade as he told the people around him to listen to
God and stop following the false gods that they had learned to love.
By the time he wrote the short book of Lamentations he was writing about
the ruins of a once great city, Jerusalem, that was totally abandoned
except for the wild animals gnawing on the bones that were scattered on
the ground. God had done what he promised. He had let Judah’s enemies
wipe his beloved people and temple off the map. Jeremiah cried until he
could cry no more. Jeremiah was still alive, but those who hated him
had discovered that what God promised, he would carry out.
By the
middle of the book, Jeremiah was overcome with thanks for the God that
he served and the faithfulness he had shown to those who were faithful
through all the confusion and pain they had just lived through. In the
middle of this expression of praise he made a point that those of us
living today would do well to hear and understand. He pointed out that
all that had happened had been with God’s permission. He knew from
experience that the God of Heaven and Earth is in charge of sending both
the calamity and the blessing that would affect everyone involved in
his discipline. You see this terrible judgment hadn’t affected just the
ungodly. Those who were godly had to go through serious challenges
that brought them pain and fear that were also a part of God’s plan for
those he considered righteous. None of us stop being sinners. Stress
has a way of helping us to see the areas of unbelief and self
centeredness that keep us from living out the peace and power that God
longs for us to experience even in the most challenging situations.
Verse 40 gives us the challenge we need to accept in the coming days.
Lord, please help us to test and examine our ways. Please Lord, turn us
back to a closer walk with you, our loving Shepherd and Eternal Savior.
Lamentations 3:37
Who can command things to happen without the Lord’s permission? 38 Does
not the Most High send both calamity and good? 39 Then why should we,
mere humans, complain when we are punished for our sins? 40 Instead, let
us test and examine our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD.
Roy Wisner
