September 25, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Let us examine and test our ways. Let us turn back to the LORD.

Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven:

“We have sinned and rebelled; You have not forgiven.”

(Lamentations 3.40-42)

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

As you read today’s Word from God found in Jeremiah’s Lamentations, I hope you see the use again of a chiastic structure. Verse 41 is the primary thrust. Here it is a call to action on the part of the people of Israel (indeed the entire world). Jeremiah has seen in his journey through Jerusalem, the Temple and into the lands beyond the gates the antithesis of this call to action. The people are not lifting up their hands to God in heaven. They are stretched out to those around for assistance and comfort. It is good to have friends, confidants and someone of resource around us as a supportive community. However, without a true orientation to God in heaven as “the” source of provision, refuge and reconciliation, all efforts fall woefully short. In some ways, God had become an afterthought or a byproduct of their beliefs. They may have oriented themselves to God because of tradition without having a true sense of worship and reliance. Half-heartedly they offered petitions to God while whole-heartedly they pleaded with others to provide. One hand up and one hand out; both hands in a receiving position as if to mimic Oliver Twist’s “Please, sir, more!” What was lacking was the position of humility, service and justice.

In humility before God, our hands should be lifted up to God. It is a position of justice knowing that without repentance we deserve to receive the Lord’s discipline and correction, perhaps even punishment. We put ourselves into a petition posture and make ourselves available to “God’s will be done.” We appeal to the justice of God before we begin to ask Him for anything we need.

In service we should lift up and out our hands bringing what we have to serve the Lord. This is not bringing the tithe before God which is required for good measure if nothing else. This is the offering of compassion to help the poor, the widow, the orphan, the outcast, the wandering stranger and those who in seasons of distress are suffering mentally, physically and spiritually. We are called to love one another, love others, love the neighbor and to love God most of all before we consider our own love of self.

While I have mentioned justice in the presenting of one’s self with humility before God above, I do so again here to bring the posturing full circle. True justice comes in keeping God first in all things. It is “His will be done” as we know Jesus’ prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. It is more than that, however. That simple petition is not just asking or allowing God to do as He wills. No, there is a response to that affirmation which should engage us as we commit to “Doing His Will.” I say it this way, “His will be done in us and through us.” True justice is not always punitive. Sometimes it must be because evil unbridled is enabled and empowered to begat evil. There has to be a line drawn. The one who is really sincere and just recognizes when they have sinned and fallen short. Their plea for justice is mercy. It is also love. Our love is fairly imperfect as it carries with it a sense of the self being satisfied. God’s love alone is perfect because it is always for our welfare and benefit (and discipline falls into that category.)

Jeremiah pleads with the people to assume the correct position as God’s people. It is based on the two posits which help to center the primary call of “lifting our hands up to God.” On the one hand, is repentance. It must be sincere. We need to hold ourselves accountable with the awareness of our wrongdoing and the consequences of it to ourselves, obviously, but more so to others. We are powerful, more so than we may know. If we just “say” we’re sorry but in our hearts remain calloused or unfeeling, then “sorry is just a five letter word.” No, our apology must include action. We must turn away from where we were headed believing God either doesn’t care, isn’t interested or is powerless to act for or against us. We must orient ourselves back to God who is sovereign.

The other posit is the recognition that God’s forgiveness, in this case for the those living in Jeremiah’s day, had not been given because the discipline was ongoing. Jerusalem and Israel were not yet free of the world and its brokenness. They were still under the rule of those who opposed God. This included, sadly, those who should affirm God at all times but who were hypocrites. We cannot have it both ways… of the world and of the kingdom. We are all still learning how to be “in the world but not of it.” Remember the scripture, “The work that God has begun in you will be completed in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 1.6) For those in Jeremiah’s days, the completing work was seen in the Messianic Community. It definitely was in the future while it was desired in the here and now. Jeremiah was prophetically calling the people to that day and time when all things would be restored and made new. It would happen in no other way than to be connected to God, with God and for God.

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.