Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna and Mikayla,
Sometimes, in this world, girls, we can become wiped out by the circumstances, grief and unrest that may surround us and seem to follow us. We become weary and tired of doing as the British do..." they carry on." Sometimes it can be difficult to put one foot in front of the other. Times like this require the big guns of the word of God. Get your Bible and go to the Servant Songs...go to some favorite Psalms or go to any portion of Scripture and sit with your Lord and memorize, pray, write and meditate on His word.
I was in just this kind of place last night....I brought my bible...not my study bible...just my bible and borrowed Anna's book light and sat with Anna and Mikayla as they slept doing just this. I wound up at the following verses in Lamentations. Just to give you an idea of what the prophet, Jeremiah's state of mind was, I have included some of the previous verses.
"I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes. You have moved my soul far from peace; I have forgotten prosperity. 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. 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!" The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him. It is good that one should hope and wait quietly For the salvation of the LORD."
Jeremiah's was devastated when he looked at the circumstances that surrounded him. He had done his best to warn the people of God's upcoming judgment but judgment was coming and nothing could prevent it. Notice, however, that in the midst of his complaint he began to think on the Lord...he shifted his focus. He remembered God's mercy and His compassion. He saw His faithfulness reaching to the skies. He remembered that it was God who was His Portion...it was God who always sustained Him...and it was God in whom was his hope.
So often in this life we become like Jeremiah was here...overwhelmed by problems and circumstances. We become short tempered. We grieve and cry out. We rant and rave. Truly though, girls, only one thing is needed and that is to go and sit at the feet of the One who desires you, loves you and died for you. Truly the Lord's compassions fail not and His mercies are new every morning. He will be good to those who wait for Him....to the soul who seeks Him.
I went back to bed last night renewed in mind and in spirit. My body was tired this morning but my heart was remembering Him.
Love
Mom
Note to Anna...I thought of you last night memorizing so much Scripture and it reminded me of where I needed to go.
Showing posts with label mercy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mercy. Show all posts
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Lessons from Jeremiah the Prophet...
Dear Suzanne, Rebecca, Anna, and Mikayla,
We have reached the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The fall of Jerusalem occurred, just as Jeremiah had predicted. Judgment had come. God suffers long and is kind, but He is not indifferent to the evil that goes on. Judgment does come...sin has consequences. The people of Judah had forsaken the living God, the fountain of living waters and carved out for themselves cisterns that could not hold water...they served the useless gods of the people around them and practiced the evil that they required....
There were so many lessons and applications for us to contemplate in the book of Jeremiah. I will not go back and review all of them, but I thought that we could look at a few.
The first is the picture we get of God's outstretched hand of mercy toward His disobedient and contrary people. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah what has struck me is our Lord's faithfulness, long suffering and mercy toward His people. Judah had rejected the word of the Lord, worshiped idols and believed the false prophets. They had walked very far from from the "old paths" where they would find rest for their souls. And yet, God pleads with His beloved people relentlessly throughout the book to come back to Him. It is such a beautiful picture to me as a mom. God warns His children to the very end...He never gives up. He so does not want them to suffer and face judgment. He yearns for them jealously and wants them with Him. When judgment does come, however, the people had no one to blame but themselves. How grieving it is when our children do not hear and go the wrong way. How difficult it is to watch knowing that trouble is ahead for them.
Another beautiful picture in Jeremiah is the prophet's faithfulness. He walked through life obeying God at every turn...despite what it looked like to those around Him...despite the lack of fruit...despite the humiliation and persecution and through it all Jeremiah was preserved and delivered by His God.
Jeremiah preached to the people for 40 years without any fruit. The results of his ministry are not what mattered to God. His heart is what mattered to God. Just as our hearts and not our results are what matters to God. I love that about God..He is so different from the world. Aside from whatever else the Spirit might accomplish through us, He also does a work in our hearts. That brings me to what I thought was the most poignant lesson in Jeremiah...the work that God accomplished in the prophet's heart.
As the prophet obeyed and communed with His God and shared in the fellowship of His suffering, he became like Jesus. Did you get that...the biggest lesson (for me) in Jeremiah is found in the transformation that occurred as he obeyed His Lord and stood on and for His word. In comparing Jesus and Jeremiah we find many similarities. They both rallied against outward religion, they both spoke the truth and were unpopular, they both wept over the city of Jerusalem, they were both men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they both faced the rejection of their relatives and countrymen, and they both were despised and rejected by men.
Yet in all this Jeremiah was more than a conqueror through Him who loved Him. Why? Through all these things Jeremiah began to resemble his Lord...to be conformed into His image. God graciously used him to warn his beloved countrymen of the coming judgment...but the results of Jeremiah's ministry were up to God. Despite the outward failure of his ministry to the rebellious nation, Jeremiah knew Him and the fellowship of His sufferings...being conformed to His image as he daily died to himself and lived for His God's glory. This is what mattered most in the end to Jeremiah...living for the eternal and not the temporary.This girls is what is also most important in our own lives. Jeremiah is rejoicing in His Savior now...living eternally with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His rebellious countrymen are suffering eternal torment in separation from God for rejecting His word.
Philippians 3:10 That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
2nd Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Love
Mom
We have reached the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The fall of Jerusalem occurred, just as Jeremiah had predicted. Judgment had come. God suffers long and is kind, but He is not indifferent to the evil that goes on. Judgment does come...sin has consequences. The people of Judah had forsaken the living God, the fountain of living waters and carved out for themselves cisterns that could not hold water...they served the useless gods of the people around them and practiced the evil that they required....
There were so many lessons and applications for us to contemplate in the book of Jeremiah. I will not go back and review all of them, but I thought that we could look at a few.
The first is the picture we get of God's outstretched hand of mercy toward His disobedient and contrary people. Throughout the Book of Jeremiah what has struck me is our Lord's faithfulness, long suffering and mercy toward His people. Judah had rejected the word of the Lord, worshiped idols and believed the false prophets. They had walked very far from from the "old paths" where they would find rest for their souls. And yet, God pleads with His beloved people relentlessly throughout the book to come back to Him. It is such a beautiful picture to me as a mom. God warns His children to the very end...He never gives up. He so does not want them to suffer and face judgment. He yearns for them jealously and wants them with Him. When judgment does come, however, the people had no one to blame but themselves. How grieving it is when our children do not hear and go the wrong way. How difficult it is to watch knowing that trouble is ahead for them.
Another beautiful picture in Jeremiah is the prophet's faithfulness. He walked through life obeying God at every turn...despite what it looked like to those around Him...despite the lack of fruit...despite the humiliation and persecution and through it all Jeremiah was preserved and delivered by His God.
Jeremiah preached to the people for 40 years without any fruit. The results of his ministry are not what mattered to God. His heart is what mattered to God. Just as our hearts and not our results are what matters to God. I love that about God..He is so different from the world. Aside from whatever else the Spirit might accomplish through us, He also does a work in our hearts. That brings me to what I thought was the most poignant lesson in Jeremiah...the work that God accomplished in the prophet's heart.
As the prophet obeyed and communed with His God and shared in the fellowship of His suffering, he became like Jesus. Did you get that...the biggest lesson (for me) in Jeremiah is found in the transformation that occurred as he obeyed His Lord and stood on and for His word. In comparing Jesus and Jeremiah we find many similarities. They both rallied against outward religion, they both spoke the truth and were unpopular, they both wept over the city of Jerusalem, they were both men of sorrows and acquainted with grief, they both faced the rejection of their relatives and countrymen, and they both were despised and rejected by men.
Yet in all this Jeremiah was more than a conqueror through Him who loved Him. Why? Through all these things Jeremiah began to resemble his Lord...to be conformed into His image. God graciously used him to warn his beloved countrymen of the coming judgment...but the results of Jeremiah's ministry were up to God. Despite the outward failure of his ministry to the rebellious nation, Jeremiah knew Him and the fellowship of His sufferings...being conformed to His image as he daily died to himself and lived for His God's glory. This is what mattered most in the end to Jeremiah...living for the eternal and not the temporary.This girls is what is also most important in our own lives. Jeremiah is rejoicing in His Savior now...living eternally with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. His rebellious countrymen are suffering eternal torment in separation from God for rejecting His word.
Philippians 3:10 That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
2nd Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Love
Mom
Sunday, October 3, 2010
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
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
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