Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of song and lyrics from Natalie Grant singing … Clean … poignantly singing of the reality of the truth that God takes repentance and turns it into redemption.
Highlight Verse[s]: Lamentations 3:55, 57 [NKJV] … 55 I called on Your name, O Lord, … from the lowest pit. … 57 You drew near on the day I called on You, and said, “Do not fear!”
… Jeremiah's hopeful lamentation over Jerusalem's destruction; and God's promise of redemption.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Lamentations 3:49-58 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… Jeremiah posits a hopeful lament seeing the destruction of war upon God’s people and Jerusalem.
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Reference Passage : … 2 Corinthians 7:9-10 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul expresses that Godly sorrow (i.e., lamenting) leads to Godly repentance which, of course, leads to God’s redemption/restoration.
Reference Passage : … 1 Peter 5:6-7 [NKJV] … 6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, 7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
… When we lament greatly; … God can restore greatly.
Reference Passage : … 1 John 1:9 [NKJV] … 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
… When we’re truly repentant and confess our sin, the Lord makes us clean again.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Peterson, used a graphic picture of statues of lamentation which help to show us of God’s mercy and redeeming grace. The ODB author wrote: To visit Clifton Heritage National Park in Nassau, Bahamas, is to revisit a tragic era in history. Where the land meets the water, stone steps lead up a cliff. Slaves brought to the Bahamas by ship in the eighteenth century would ascend these steps, often leaving family behind and entering a life of inhumane treatment. At the top, there is a memorial to those slaves [see photo]. Cedar trees have been carved into the shapes of women looking out to sea toward the homeland and family members they’ve lost. Each sculpture is scarred with marks of the slave captain’s whip.
These sculptures of women mourning what they’ve lost remind me of the importance of recognizing the injustices and broken systems in the world, and lamenting them. Lamenting does not mean that we are without hope; rather, it’s a way of being honest with God.
Yes, God responded to Jeremiah’s lamentation when the Prophet saw what God had allowed Babylon to do to Jerusalem and God’s people. However, the Lord, thru the Prophet, also declared that He would make His people clean … just as Any Grant sings in the linked song. As the Apostle Peter declares (in 1Pet. 5:6-7) we need to bring our sorrow over our sin to a loving God; and as his fellow Apostle, Paul, declares (in 2Cor. 7:9-10), Godly sorrow leads to Godly repentance. And we Christians should know and believe that Godly repentance leads to God’s cleansing and redemption (see 1John 1:9).
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for responding to my repentance with Your restoration.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, King Jesus, … O Lord, you have made me clean as I lament and repent of my sin. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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