LAMENTATIONS 3:13-24 – “He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. 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.””
THEME OF THE DAY: BUT THIS I CALL TO MIND. The book of Lamentations is a difficult book. Not to understand but because of its laments. Jeremiah, the prophetic author, is feeling the pain of Israel’s chastisement from the Lord. They are a disobedient people, and the Lord’s love is a tough love providing painful correction to restore His people.
Go back and read today’s scripture and feel the pathos of Jeremiah. Israel’s pain is his pain. As God’s people suffer so does God’s servant, and the language of pain is intense . . .
“He drove into my kidneys the arrows of his quiver; I have become the laughingstock of all my people, the object of their taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes; my soul is bereft of peace; I have forgotten what happiness is; so I say, “My endurance has perished; so has my hope from the Lord.” Remember my affliction and my wanderings, the wormwood and the gall! My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me” (Lamentations 3:13-20).
One word would appear to describe Jeremiah – hopeless, but then comes verse 21 – “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope.”
Jeremiah refused to give into the “stinking thinking” of pain and difficult circumstances. He took hold of himself. He changed his thinking. He went from thoughts on himself to thoughts on the Lord, and that made all the difference . . .
“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”” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
How we think and who we think of will determine how we will live. Focus our minds on our pain, circumstances, and self instead of the Lord, His faithfulness and love, and we will know nothing but emotional upheaval and a joyless walk with the Lord. However, get our minds on to the Lord, and watch how things change from the inside out. We begin to know joy in the midst of pain, strength when weak, and hope in a hopeless world. And it is all based on where we direct our minds, or our thinking. May the Lord show us how important our minds are in our walks with him, and then do what Jeremiah did – direct it to the things of the Lord and His Person, not ourselves.
PRAYER: Father, help me renew my mind and let right thinking control me, and not my emotions and circumstances.
REFLECTION: As we think, we live. What we put in our minds will come out in our attitudes, actions and worldview.