Reflection: Wrath: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions:

                1. Have you ever experienced completer silence from God in the wake of personal destruction whether of your own making or not?

                2. How did you react to the silence? Did it feel like more betrayal? Or punishment? Or confusion?

                3. Why is silence more difficult to handle than outright accusations?

                4. What does God's wrath over Jerusalem's actions tell us about His love?

Share: When did you personally remember God's forgiveness?

Wrath: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Lamentations: 2:1-6: "How the Lord has covered...With a cloud in His anger!...The Lord has swallowed up; He  has not spared All the habitants of Jacob...In fierce anger he has cut off All the strength of Israel; ...The Lord has become like an enemy."

Wrath

Lord, too often we forget that, like our earthly parents did, we still cross the line. And then experience anger and consequences in our rebellion.

We cannot ignore our sins and actions and try to blame others.

But even in Your anger You remain present to turn us back to Your love. To guide us to recognize our vulnerability is a reminder to stay on Your path only.

Without Your presence Lord, we sin.

Show us, we pray, how to be honest before You in all our thoughts and actions.

So that we will walk in faith on whatever path You choose for us.

Your thoughts,

Alone: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                 Alone

                She stands alone

                at the center of her city

                empty now of tears

                dried up. Loves deceived,

                friends disappeared,

                elders and priests

                perish for sustenance

                empty now of solace

                refused human compassion

                she stands alone/

Psalm 37:5: "Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, and He will do it."

  

Reflection: Wrongs: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflections Questions:

                1. In what way has an act of rebellion on your part broken a loving relationship?

                2. Did the ramifications affect others around you? How?

                3. How has that experience affected decisions you make now?

Share: Do you believe God has been in your situation?  Have you accepted the Lord's forgiveness?

Wrongs: Lamentations: Prayer and Poetry

 Reading: Lamentations: 1:18-22: "The Lord is righteous; For I have rebelled against His command; .... My Spirit is greatly troubled; My heart is overturned within me; ... For all my transgressions; For my groans are many, and my heart is faint."

Wrongs

Sometimes we often see the Lord's light only as bringing hope and healing, which it does, through Him. But sometimes light is also needed to bring us out of our wrongs as well.

So that we can recognize them as the danger they are. So that we can seek to repent and be made clean and whole despite our brokenness.

Any relationship needs total honesty. And the Lord already knows all of us from the inside out.

And He is the only one who can fully restore our hearts and our lives--no matter how shattered.

Lord, please help us to see what we are still hiding from ourselves, or refusing to acknowledge as sin. Then bring us to fully seek Your word and choose Your forgiveness. And then become Your lights when You send us.

Your thoughts, 

Consumed: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                Consumed

                Fires swept her streets

                hot dragon's breath

                consuming any obstacle

                rushing over buildings

                searing trees

                unstoppable

                survivors left too weak to stand

                shackled into yokes

                chattel

                cries frozen in shock

                song silenced in

                captivity.

Psalm 37: 4: "Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart."

                

                

                

Reflection: Weakened: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions

                1. Have you experienced a time when you felt utterly consumed and helpless physically, emotionally, or spiritually?

                2. Did you ever feel that the Lord Himself has crushed you? Why?

                3. How did that experience change your faith, or your attitude towards the Lord?

Share: What is your response now when you are completely unable to stand?