After two and a half chapters of lament, it’s nice to finally get a break. But before we get to the break, I have to quote a couple lines from the start of Lamentations 3:
He turned me into a skeleton of skin and bones, then broke the bones... He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. ...Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.
Man, Jeremiah was really feeling it, eh?
When you have that feeling that the world is against you, then you feel like God is against you too… wuff!
Read the first 18 verses of chapter 3 in Lamentations, and you’ll think it couldn’t get much worse than this.
Then all of a sudden, somewhere around verses 19-21, the tone changes.
The whole mood switches.
Here’s what Jeremiah writes:
God’s loyal love couldn’t have run out,
his merciful love couldn’t have dried up.
They’re created new every morning.
How great your faithfulness!
I’m sticking with God (I say it over and over).
He’s all I’ve got left.
25-27 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,
to the woman who diligently seeks.
It’s a good thing to quietly hope,
quietly hope for help from God.
It’s a good thing when you’re young
to stick it out through the hard times.
28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take,
go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
The “worst” is never the worst.
31-33 Why? Because the Master won’t ever walk out and fail to return. If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way...
Isn’t that great?! I jived so much with this section of Lamentations that I actually memorized it. If you don’t want to memorize that whole section, at least keep this in your heart and mind moving forward: “God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks.”
See you in chapter 4.
Omer Redden 