September 19, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed.
 His compassions never fail. They are new every morning.
 Great is your faithfulness. [Thus] I say to myself, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.‘”  (Lamentations 3.22-24)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD TO US:

In the midst of our distress and grief, in the throes of conflict and doubt, in the arena of the battle of flesh and spirit, we have to have a centering idea on which to focus and maintain ourselves as who we are, who we are meant to be and whose we are.

WHO WE ARE: We are children of the Most High God born out of the creation which He initiated because love must abide and abound.

WHO WE ARE TO BE: We are servants, ambassadors, emissaries and proclaimers of the love of God and called to be in the world (which has become not as He created) but not of the world (our true reality is the Kingdom of God which is in the midst of us.)

WHOSE WE ARE: Let there be no doubt as to the fundamental truth: even in the midst of a freedom to choose, we can never choose God away. We can never will Him away. We can never cause God to cease to exist. We are His. We are the sheep of His pasture and the people of His Hand (meaning He was made us; He has conceived of us before we were in the womb; He has fearfully and wonderfully made us internally and the externals of the world cannot limit that try as it may.) Ultimately, we shall all answer to the very Word which brought life as we know it into being. God is sovereign and majesty and glory forever and ever. AMEN.

Mighty ones of God, those are not the centering ideas. We can true benefit by remembering them, however. What helps us to remember that is a commitment to, as in the words of Jeremiah in his lament, ‘The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.‘ Remember the four elements needed for a true lament? They are: a call to God either in praise or sorrow; the description of the problem which the author is experiencing speaking to God who alone can resolve the issue; a petition to God to bring about that resolution which is beyond the ability of the author/lamenter; and finally, a statement of trust that God will act and the lamenter will act as well. It is important to note that a true biblical lament will contain that final element. It is was sets a lament apart from a biblical lament. Lamentations 3 is the crucible for Jeremiah as he speaks for himself to God as a man and as a representative of the nation/people of Israel. Isaiah, in his call to be a prophet to the nation of Israel and thus to the entire world, lamented to God in the presence of His angels, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips who dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” (Isaiah 6.5) Still, when God issued the call over Israel (being manifested in the person of Isaiah in that moment) saying “Who will go for US? Whom shall I send to the people?”, Isaiah responded, “Here am I, o Lord, send me!” This was Isaiah’s lament. In that lament, representing not only himself but the nation of Israel, Isaiah accepted the commission to be a proclaimer of truth regardless of the worldly consequences. To deny or set aside the calling was to mock God. Paul wrote almost a thousand years later a letter to the community of faith in Galatia saying, “God will not be mocked.” (Galatians 6.7) As it was for Isaiah so, too, was it to be the hope of the whole of the nation of Israel that they would confess they were a “people (a nation) of unclean lips dwelling in the midst of a people (all nations) of unclean lips.” It would be the truth of God that would not only purge their lips but the intent and content of their heart, mind and spirit which poured out over them. They were to be a witness to the nations as a nation redeemed, reconciled and reborn. Sounds strangely familiar to the Great Commission which Jesus gave to the disciples before He ascended into Heaven. Were they not also “purged” by fire, not as a burning coal from the altar, but from the Holy Spirit. Remember the words of those who walked with Jesus on resurrection day as they departed Jerusalem for Emmaus. They asked themselves, “Didn’t His words burn in our hearts as He spoke them?“

Jeremiah had such a burning and yearning to remember in the heat of the battle and the refuse of its conflict in the flesh and in the spirit of Israel: who he was, who he was meant to be and, most of all, whose he was. He lamented over all of that in chapter 3 and resulted in a profession of faith that he would “wait” on the Lord for the Lord was his portion. There is a message in that passage as well and it bears reflection. Until then, let us find his profession to be ours as we embrace it as our centering idea allowing us to remember the same: we are His, we are His presence in the world and we know no other life truly that is good apart from Him.

Until we meet again, shalom.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.