Good evening
and welcome to Dr. Joyce Boucher and all my fellow ministers of the gospel.
Thank you for taking the time to listen and engage in the messages that God will
speak to our hearts.
Allow me to
begin with words penned and sung by worship artist Paul Baloche last night, because
they aptly echo the words of Jeremiah and capture God’s heart and those of
rebellious people who have known great suffering and desire to return to God.
I once was
lost, I walked away
The road
was dark, I could not see
My hope was
gone, the pain was real
But your
mercy
you felt my
fear
You heard
my cry
you ran to
me
With your
mercy
Your
loving-kindness
It leads me
to repentance
Each Fall, I pray for a word
to carry me through the next year. None have impacted me more than those found
in the book of Lamentations in a season of darkness. During this time, God’s
healing words of mercy and hope penetrated the depths of my heart and through
the meditation of Lamentations 3:21-26
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never
ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
The Lord is good to those who wait for
him,
to the soul who seeks him.
It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
I came to understand that My God is Faithful, He provides hope in
His Mercy. But for God this
would not have been possible.
Jesus longs for His Word to be understood and awaken the desires of our
heart because information without application never leads to transformation.
Yet the longest journey we will ever take is the 18 inches from our head to our
heart. I confess that I am guilty of hindering this process – out of resistance,
fear and disobedience. I either retreat or busily make everything a task to
check off my list instead of embracing the process much like I did with this
message at first. I
must say however, last night’s worship event brought a completely different
perspective – instead of foregoing worship to work on my message, I chose to
participate – WOW! What an answer to prayer – finally I did like Mary and sat
at his feet instead of being a busy Martha as I usually would have done in this
case.
Perhaps, you too may have
found yourself so busy that you have overlooked intimate relationship with our
God. It’s been said that “if Satan can’t make you bad he will make you busy.”
B-U-S-Y simply means Burdened Under Satan’s Yoke.
My own busyness became my
sin, the sin that took away from my time with God. I was on the verge of a burn
out… (truthfully, – I was clinical depressed and unwilling to ask for help or
admit my suffering). While God is not to blame for the depression, and it
wasn’t my fault neither, my lifestyle, repressed emotions and avoidance of
cautionary warnings were not helpful.
Today marks the 5th
anniversary of the day my world and I came undone, and I stopped denying the
depression that held me captive. – after 10 years in the same job, I found
myself without, as the result of a reorganization. During this time, I
desperately searched for God through whichever means I could find. Most days I
could barely utter a simple prayer like “Jesus help me” let alone read, write
and memorize scriptures and confusion would set in – I was stuck in a downward
spiral of anxious thoughts. Then I came across mindful worship – Thank you God!
This audible meditation on Lamentations 3:21-26 repeated over and over “His
mercies are new every morning” it gave me hope – it built me up and encouraged
me to reach for His new mercies. That as Paul states in 2 Corinthians 4 “our
present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a
glory that…will last forever! don’t look at the troubles we can see now; but
fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For they…will last forever.” As an
act of repentance, I surrendered my worry, anxiety and fears to God and He
began to restore me. Within a short period, I began to hope again particularly when
like Jeremiah, I remembered this:
The faithful love of the
Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
No matter the suffering that you may be
facing rest assured in knowing that God’s Word provides Healing, Prayer and
Encouragement particularly when we Obey. Hope without Obedience is empty and deferred or unfulfilled hope.
The story that unfolds in
the book of Lamentations has been a healing balm to my hurried heart and wild
mind. My prayer for you is that it gives you freedom to process your emotions,
question the how and why of your darkness and call to God for restoration
despite the mess. Now of course we cannot fully appreciate the significance of
Chapter 3 without looking at it in context of the entire book. In these
acrostic poems, all neatly organized despite the chaotic theme of the story, God’s
heart is revealed through the prophet Jeremiah. As the story progresses,
Jeremiah moves from horrible loss and shame to restored hope and prayer for
renewal. He mourns for Jerusalem, reveals to us God’s mercy, the consequences
of sin and eternal hope during suffering. Jeremiah warns people to repent and
return to God; this is seen in Lamentations 3:39-41 (Then why should we, mere
humans, complain when we are punished for our sins? Instead, let us test and
examine our ways. Let us turn back to the Lord. Let us lift our hearts and
hands to God in heaven.) Furthermore, Jeremiah pleads for restoration and
reminds us to ask for God’s mercy and grieve with God (mourn for what he mourns
and be broken for what breaks him) – Once we trust God, obey him and
demonstrate a willingness to change then he can “contend” with us. (Jeremiah
2:9a)
In the first chapter, we
see that because of immoral living, Jerusalem suffered God’s punishment-
despite warnings “She defiled herself with immorality and gave no thought to
her future. Now she lies in the gutter with no one to lift her out.” (Lam 1:9)
Because of Jerusalem’s ongoing defiance and disobedience, God exacted judgment.
Essentially, all of Jerusalem’s sources offering a sense of security were lost-
the people had a choice to seek the Great Comforter, by repenting and returning
to God or trusting only in themselves which ultimately led to desolation.
Then, we get a glimpse of God’s compassion through
Jeremiah’s lament “I have cried until the tears no longer come; my heart is
broken. My spirit is poured out in agony as I see the desperate plight of my
people.” (Lam 2:11). How much greater is God’s sorrow for his people. With
everything taken from them– they were vulnerable, weeping and open to seeking
forgiveness from God – this was an opportunity for them to experience God’s
faithfulness and mercy as demonstrated in Chapter 3:21-25 the same verses that
encouraged me to seek God wholeheartedly, to hold on to hope despite suffering
and to ask Him to become A SIGNIFICANT part of my life AND ALLOW ME TO fully
experience His rescue and restoration through love, mercy and hope! May he do
the same for you!
In chapter 4, Jeremiah
tells us of how God’s divine anger is satisfied. Because of the people’s sin
there was destruction, guilt and poverty. Jerusalem was under siege for two
years and couldn’t get out of the protection offered by their walls to get food
and water – hope was gone!
Finally, in the last
chapter, Jeremiah pleads for restoration. He recounts the plight of Jerusalem
asking the Lord to remember them. In verse 21 he prays “Restore us, Oh Lord and
bring us back to you again! Give us back the joys we once had!
God is faithful to his
promises – if he follows through on punishment for disobedience then we can
rest assured that he will follow through on restoration and blessings when we choose
to repent and turn to Him. We can be confident in His great promises for the
future.
The book of Lamentations
reveals God’s merciful character. It shows us that despite our waywardness and
sin we can hope in His faithfulness because he delights in showing unfailing
love.
It’s not enough to gather
information about God, we must activate our faith and choose to believe without
seeing despite our circumstances. It has also ignited in me compassion for
anyone wrestling with mental health and a desire to help set the captives free.
My final words to each
of you as you go and make disciples - Do not be discouraged at the
intersection of sorrow, suffering and surrender because there you will also
find your Savior. Be encouraged for Great is God’s faithfulness.
