Lamentations

My Closing thoughts on Lamentations

As I read through Lamentations I see Jeremiah trying to paint a picture so God’s people will understand more clearly who they are and who God is. This is the entire point of this writing… to bring God’s people to see that they are not God… to show them that they are hopeless without him. This is something that has become increasingly powerful in my mind especially lately. I have been working with a youth group here in town and I see more clearly every Wednesday evening how utterly lost this world is. These kids are good kids… but they are blinded to the reality that they are hungry and thirsty and desperate for God. I see more and more clearly that they are utterly hopeless every moment that they look for life apart from God. I am so thankful for what God has given me… and I am broken at the thought of people being without the genuine article of life that God offers. God has offered us living water through Christ… he has offered us all the blessings of the kingdom of God NOW. Yet… we choose less. I see this in the high school kids… I see this in the church today… I see this in my own life… the temptation to settle for less than what God says is best. It’s not that everything is bad… there are good things that I desire… but am I going to seek life in those things or in what God desires as best for me? I don’t know much… but I know that I want what God has… and I will not settle for less. If he has living water then I want it. If he has REAL… GENUINE… life… then I want it. This is what I see in Lamentations… a man broken that his people have traded the truth of God for a lie. They chose selfishness and sin, which brought death… instead of what God offered in his righteous ways, which is pure life.
Deuteronomy 30:15-20
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey… then you shall & God will bless you. But if your heart turns away… you shall surely perish. I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days…”
This is what I see as I read through Lamentations. God offers life and death… Judah chose death… I am not going to make the mistake Judah chose. It seems like such a simple decision but I am humbled at how often I choose sin instead of righteousness. This also breaks my heart… and I see it in this book… that I am a fallen human and for some reason sin seems attractive to me. I would rather have death… that’s the bottom line… for my flesh will do everything it can to make me walk in sin… to think that sin is attractive. Sin sucks… there is no life in it… period. We as humans are absolute morons to think that sin brings any sort of joy or rest or happiness. Selfishness is sin… hate is sin… and these two things pretty much are the cause of all pain and suffering in this world. So… the hell with them. I want love… I want selfishness… I want to walk in God’s ways… because you know what… in God’s ways there is life, the genuine article.

God offers restoration, redemption, rest, security, joy, peace, hope… eternal life… REAL… TRUE… GENUINE… life. He has come and brought life and love and light to a world of darkness in Christ. I want that. I want the real stuff. I am tired of what sin offers… I don’t want death… I don’t want all the crap… I don’t want what sucks. I want God… I want what he wants… he wants life for me… and I want life for me. All these equations make it seem so simple… thank you Jesus that it is simple. The beautiful thing that I see in Lamentations is that God wants this for me. This is what I have seen throughout God’s word. He wants life for us… he is working relentlessly to restore us… by his awesome grace that we in no way deserve he is working to rid this world of sin and restore us to himself in righteousness. This is why Christ came… this is why he wants us to walk in his commandments… this is why we dare not look at the cross and think anything less than of God’s steadfast love. He has restored us who find ourselves in Christ…

HALLELUJAH… what a SAVIOR… we were dead in our sins and he has made us ALIVE!!!