Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Kristen Giles singing Even the Darkness is Light to You … poignantly singing of how God sees light even when we only see darkness.
Crying Out with our Laments to God
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Highlight Verse[s]: Lamentations 3:49-50 [NLT] ... 49 My tears flow endlessly; they will not stop 50 until the Lord looks down from heaven and sees.
… Jeremiah cries out to God, lamenting the trials of God's people.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Lamentations 3:49-66 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jeremiah cries out to God, lamenting what has happened to God’s people.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 116:1-5 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… An unknown Psalmist cries out to God with a song which, according to scholars, could likely have been one sung by Jesus and His Disciples in the Upper Room (see Matt. 26:30 or Mark 14:26) the night before the cross.
Reference Passage : …Habakkuk 1:2-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… A confused prophet cries out to God, seeing injustice and evil all around him.
Reference Passage : … 2Corinthians 12:7-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul cries out repetitively for God to relieve him of the painful “thorn;” but he comes to realize that the “thorn” is to keep him humble to receive God’s grace.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Peterson, shares a story of a whale grieving the loss of her calf to illustrate how natural it is for us to lament our dark circumstances to God. … The ODB author wrote: Last summer, an orca named Talequah gave birth. Talequah’s pod of killer whales was endangered, and her newborn was their hope for the future. But the calf lived for less than an hour. In a show of grief that was watched by people around the world, Talequah pushed her dead calf through the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean for seventeen days before letting her go.
Sometimes believers in Jesus have a hard time knowing what to do with grief. Perhaps we fear that our sorrow might look like a lack of hope. But the Bible gives us many examples of humans crying out to God in grief. Lament and hope can both be part of a faithful response. [see photo]
God’s word is repetitively clear that we need to lament our confusing or confounding circumstances and bring them to God, … especially when we can’t understand the darkness which surrounds us. Jeremiah, the weeping Prophet, certainly did this throughout the entire book of Lamentations (as in today’s highlight passage). … Habakkuk, the confused Prophet, cried out to God when he didn’t understand the evil all around him (see Habakkuk 1:2-4) … The Apostle Paul, when he was dealing with the pain of a “thorn in his flesh,” took his pain to God (see 2Cor. 12:7-10). And even Jesus’ Disciples sang a lament in the upper room, when the Disciples where so confused about what Jesus was saying was about to happen (see Psalm 116 and Mark 14:26).
In these trying and confusing times we find ourselves, I would guess that many of us are finding it hard to see God’s purpose and plan in the midst of this pandemic. And like the men of God in the examples above, we’re confused and don’t understand what God is doing. Well, … like the men above, God wants us to be willing to cry out to Him, because as it says in Ps. 116:1-4, our Lord will even bend down to hear us; and He will show us that His grace is sufficient for us in these times (see 2Cor. 12:9).
So, my friend, join me in crying out to God today; and let’s pray that He will show us the light He sees in all this darkness (hear today’s linked song).
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for being there to hear our prayers of confusion and pain.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me, to cry out to God to seek His light in all the darkness we’re experiencing these days. 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.</ span>
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