The Spirit of Heaviness - Part 2

This I recall to my mind, Therefore I have hope. Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed,  Because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning;  Great is Your faithfulness.  “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,  “ Therefore I hope in Him!”--Lamentations 3:21-24

Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,


I have been reading through Lamentations and have reached Chapter 3.  In the  first two chapters Jeremiah laments the tragedy of the judgment and destruction of Jerusalem.  God's people had rebelled against Him and ignored His warnings.  The time for judgment had come. Chapter 3 begins with the prophet's own pain and suffering as he watches his people face judgment...the people he had preached to with tears for forty years without one convert.  Imagine his distress. Jeremiah paints a graphic word picture of his suffering for us in verses 1 through 18. He tells us that God was like his enemy aiming arrows at him that pierced his loins and although his prophecies had been fulfilled, the people were still against him and ridiculed him. In verse 16  he says he is covered with ashes.  The final verse of this lament  says "And I said, “My strength and my hope Have perished from the LORD.”  Remember my affliction and roaming, The wormwood and the gall.  My soul still remembers And sinks within me."  Are you getting the picture? Okay...now we come to the turning point where he takes his eyes off of his own misery, looks at the Lord instead and says in verse 21 that he has hope! Here he remembers God's mercy! He remembers that it is through the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed and that His compassions fail not. Girls if we do not remember this our souls will sink within us just as Jeremiah's did.

 I am a woman who has been forgiven much and truly think I do see the Lord's mercy and compassion.  Sometimes, however, the Lord reaches deep into your soul and shows you in a  more personal way a truth that you have prayed to understand more. 

Such was my experience today after reading chapter 3.  While watching home video footage that had been taken in 1994 prior to my salvation, I had the opportunity to see up close and personal what my life and my family's life had been like without the Lord.  Now I remember it in the general sense but seeing it on tape and seeing the contrast of what it is today was a gift from Him to me.  It allowed me to see with marked clarity the Lord's mercies in not consuming us.  It also showed me how He took us from a life of self-worship, emptiness and eternal damnation to a life filled with and lived for Him whose end was heaven.  As I watched with spiritual eyes that I did not have back then I was so thankful for His faithfulness and was grateful that He did not give me what I truly deserved...death.  You know what...I may not be getting exactly what I want right now, but I am very grateful that I am not getting what I deserve. And even in not getting what I want I know that whatever I am or am not getting is the Lord's mercy and goodness to me. I know that He works all things in my life as a believer together for good.  I am  appreciative to the Lord for the miracle He and He alone has wrought in  my life and in the life of my husband and you, my daughters.   I saw the blessings I would have missed and what our end would have been without Him and I SHUDDERED.

After watching those videos I can see is His faithfulness, His compassion and His mercy in a way I was unable to before. This generated hope in my soul  and reminded me to remember, like Jeremiah did,  that His mercies and compassions fail not when that spirit of heaviness hits...that I can praise Him because I am NOT getting what I truly deserve. Instead I am getting His truth and His grace upon grace poured out in my life. So sing and exchange the spirit of heaviness for the garment of praise and be grateful to Him that His compassion and His mercies fail not!

Love,
Mom

“The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you;
The LORD lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”--Numbers 6:24-26