Christian Living
1 Lamentations 3:1-18
“I Am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light. Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old. He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places. He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins. I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day. He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity. And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:”
Trials and hardships come and even though we pray, we hear nothing from the Lord and there is no answer or deliverance; we begin to give up (our human feelings take over rather than our faith)
2. Lam 3:19-27
“Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me. This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.”
When we serve the Lord, during hardships and trials we never give up completely, because we all still have that glimmer of hope left within that the Lord has instilled in us; we must remember that hope and grasp it to help keep us from drowning
3. Lam 3:28-33
“He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him. He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach. For the Lord will not cast off for ever: But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.”
He will never leave us or let us down for very long, even when we think He has
4. Lam 3:34-39
“To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth. To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not. Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not? Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good? Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?”
Sometimes we as Christians suffer the price of the lost sinners, and we just don’t understand why. But we cannot question God’s reasons nor should we complain because none of us are sinless. The Lord will allow us good times and bad times, and we must be strong and trust Him during those bad times.
5. Lam 3:40-54
“Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens. We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned. Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through. Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us. Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction. Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people. Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission. Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven. Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city. Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.”
When times are so very hard and we feel that God does not hear our prayer, we all fall short at times and become doubtful and angry and question His ways; we cry and plead and hit our bottom of the hole we seem to be in
6. Lam 3:55-58
“I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon. Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry. Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not. O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.”
But if we are still and quiet and push that doubt and anger away and trust in the Lord, the light will come and He will deliver us from the trial and give us joy once again. He does hear our prayer and our cries; He is only waiting for us to become humbled enough to let it all go so that We know He is God and that He is the only one to cleanse us from all sin and free us from trial and give peace and joy within our soul
* WE MUST BE HUMBLE TO BE THE MOST FAITHFUL AND OBEDIENT SERVANT TO GOD *
7. James 4:7-8
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.”
We must learn to submit to God and draw near to Him: even when times are so terribly hard that we feel we cannot live through it. Do not step backward and grab hold of that hope you still have inside from Him. Trials and hardships are nothing but ‘lessons’ for us- they help us grow strong and become even more humbled than the trial before.
8. James 4:9
“Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.”
Swallow pride and face that we cannot win the battle of the trial on our own, not can any other human win the battle for us. Open our closet and let the secrets out, even if they seem the darkest ever, we must let them out and lay them down at the Cross of Jesus; when this occurs we face our ‘demons’ and the sorrow of the ‘demon’ comes forth and we cry and empty our soul
9. James 4:10
“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
You will finally hit the bottom of the hole you feel you are in and your demons will become visible (no longer hiding in the dark closet) and this will cause you to feel the lowest part of that hole- this is where humility comes in and being humbled is the making of a good and faithful servant.
When we are humbled from a trial, this reminds us of the power of God and that we are just small and lowly. When we open the closet and face the demons, and when we throw them out of that closet to Jesus, we open up vacancy in our soul for the Holy Spirit to fill us with the peace and the joy and the love and happiness that God offers to us all. And without humbling one self to God, true faith and trust can never be found within our soul, and peace and joy will be unknown.
Even when we feel we are the most humbled we can be, the Lord may see differently. And this is when He allows trials to come our way to humble us even further so that our faith and trust in Him is one step stronger than before. And we must remember that we will never be so humbled or so strong in faith and trust that He will cease all trials, because we are only human and are faced with a world of sin and doubt so we will always need to be disciplined by God to take check on our self and this is His way of doing that.
-wlf
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