“HOPING IN, AND WAITING ON, GOD"
Lamentations 3: 19-26
Lately, it has been very difficult for me to watch the news. Even though I like to be aware of what is going on in our world, whether it is on social media or the televised press, I found myself going through a range of negative emotions from helplessness, to sadness, to anger, whenever I consume the current news.
Somehow, they remind me of the conditions that Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was indeed crying about as he lamented about his homeland. Jerusalem has been destroyed by Babylon in 586 B.C. and her people killed, tortured, or taken captive. He wrote this poem to teach his people that to disobey God is to invite disaster. In Lamentations 2: 11we read: “I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken, my spirit poured out, as I see what has happened to my people: little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the street.” While this may be somewhat limited in the United States, for many of our “homelands,” this is very much what is happening: like in Gaza where the Israel’s genocide, supported by United States’s money and weapons is ongoing, in Ukraine, in Soudan and South Soudan, in Haiti, and many other nations, that is exactly what is ongoing, especially after the decision by the Trump’s administration to end USAID. Children are starving to death, or being killed while trying to get something to eat.
However, in the midst of the darkness of his time, Jeremiah spoke about hope. In the darkness, the atrocities and the cruelty of our time I pray that we also can speak of the same hope. I invite you to meditate, as I did, on the passage listed above, Lamentations 3:19-26.
“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
You see, while everything was falling apart around him, Jeremiah had hope of better days to come, he had hope of deliverance to come; and this hope was strengthened by two assurances 1) God has been faithful and would continue to be faithful. 2) God’s compassion never ends.
Are you going through some things? As you pray for deliverance, 1) Never forget that God is able. 2) Never lose hope in the LORD. 3) Wait patiently on God.
Hoping in God implies both trust and patience. Trust involves confidence in God’s power to deliver and faith that he will keep his promises. Hoping in the LORD also implies the patience to wait for God’s promises to become reality, as God works according to his own timing. It is said that God may not come when we want, but he is always on time.
Hope = Trust + Patience.
DELIVERANCE = Hoping in + Waiting on, the LORD.
Let us pray. Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God, we bless your Holy Name. We give you thanks O God, for all that you have done, and all that you are doing in our lives, even now. You promised that you will never leave us or forsake us, and true to your word, you never did. Regardless of what we are going through, we know that we can count on you to be there with us, even if we don’t see it, even if we don’t feel it. Strengthen our faith and give us the patience which are the pillars of our hope that our deliverance is coming. We believe that indeed your nature is unchanging. We believe that you are the same forgiving God, that you are the same compassionate God, that you are the same forever faithful God. Give us the strength to endure until our deliverance comes, as we are sure that just as we are praying this prayer, that it will come in your time. Thank you, God, for your grace, thank you, God, for your mercies, thank you, God, for your enduring faithfulness. Be ever present with us, we pray, in the matchless name of Jesus the Christ. Amen and Amen
Written by Rev. Franck Aguilh
Lately, it has been very difficult for me to watch the news. Even though I like to be aware of what is going on in our world, whether it is on social media or the televised press, I found myself going through a range of negative emotions from helplessness, to sadness, to anger, whenever I consume the current news.
Somehow, they remind me of the conditions that Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, was indeed crying about as he lamented about his homeland. Jerusalem has been destroyed by Babylon in 586 B.C. and her people killed, tortured, or taken captive. He wrote this poem to teach his people that to disobey God is to invite disaster. In Lamentations 2: 11we read: “I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is broken, my spirit poured out, as I see what has happened to my people: little children and tiny babies are fainting and dying in the street.” While this may be somewhat limited in the United States, for many of our “homelands,” this is very much what is happening: like in Gaza where the Israel’s genocide, supported by United States’s money and weapons is ongoing, in Ukraine, in Soudan and South Soudan, in Haiti, and many other nations, that is exactly what is ongoing, especially after the decision by the Trump’s administration to end USAID. Children are starving to death, or being killed while trying to get something to eat.
However, in the midst of the darkness of his time, Jeremiah spoke about hope. In the darkness, the atrocities and the cruelty of our time I pray that we also can speak of the same hope. I invite you to meditate, as I did, on the passage listed above, Lamentations 3:19-26.
“I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, ‘The LORD is my portion; therefore, I will wait for him.’ The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
You see, while everything was falling apart around him, Jeremiah had hope of better days to come, he had hope of deliverance to come; and this hope was strengthened by two assurances 1) God has been faithful and would continue to be faithful. 2) God’s compassion never ends.
Are you going through some things? As you pray for deliverance, 1) Never forget that God is able. 2) Never lose hope in the LORD. 3) Wait patiently on God.
Hoping in God implies both trust and patience. Trust involves confidence in God’s power to deliver and faith that he will keep his promises. Hoping in the LORD also implies the patience to wait for God’s promises to become reality, as God works according to his own timing. It is said that God may not come when we want, but he is always on time.
Hope = Trust + Patience.
DELIVERANCE = Hoping in + Waiting on, the LORD.
Let us pray. Omniscient, Omnipotent, Omnipresent God, we bless your Holy Name. We give you thanks O God, for all that you have done, and all that you are doing in our lives, even now. You promised that you will never leave us or forsake us, and true to your word, you never did. Regardless of what we are going through, we know that we can count on you to be there with us, even if we don’t see it, even if we don’t feel it. Strengthen our faith and give us the patience which are the pillars of our hope that our deliverance is coming. We believe that indeed your nature is unchanging. We believe that you are the same forgiving God, that you are the same compassionate God, that you are the same forever faithful God. Give us the strength to endure until our deliverance comes, as we are sure that just as we are praying this prayer, that it will come in your time. Thank you, God, for your grace, thank you, God, for your mercies, thank you, God, for your enduring faithfulness. Be ever present with us, we pray, in the matchless name of Jesus the Christ. Amen and Amen
Written by Rev. Franck Aguilh
Posted in Mid-Week Devotional
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