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?

Weakened: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Lamentations 1:13-17: ..."For these things I weep; My eyes run down with water; Because far from me is a comforter,  One who restores my soul; My children are desolate Because the enemy has prevailed.' ...".

Weakened

There are so many areas where we see or experience the attacks of the enemy: through our own sins, or from others, or caught up in the battleground around us.

And through our losses and tears we do think that the enemy has prevailed.

But not really.

Yes the grief and the loss are very real, but our Lord is always present to be with us throughout the danger and throughout the chaos. He protects us and guides us to turn away from anything false so that we can see and return to His truth.

To protection. To healing. To restoration. To hope.

He protects each of us not only from attack without but also from our own sins hiding within.

Please teach us Lord, to truly know You and walk Your paths as You lead--especially when our tears flow in grief.

Please restore our souls.

Your thoughts,

Forlorn: Prayers and Poetry

                  Forlorn

               With no thought

                for tomorrow she followed

                whims chasing treasure

                fickle as a child

                watching butterflies.

                Forlorn stands before sanctuary

                weeping at destruction

                fouled by graffiti

                willful desecration

                filled with debris.

                Wanders searching

                food for strength to

                withstand another day

                fervently praying sorrow be

                wiped away, sin

                forgiven, restore broken

                faith.

Psalm 37:3: "Trust in the Lord, and do, good; Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness."

                

                

Reflection: Wandered: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions

                1. What sin in your past (or present) would make you feel naked if exposed, even though you know the Lord has forgiven you?

                2. Do you still try to make amends to earn forgiveness?

                3. In what ways do you attempt to restore yourself before seeking God's grace?

Share: Why is it difficult? Or why is it not?

Wandered: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Lamentations 1:8-12: "...She did not consider her future; Therefore she has fallen astonishingly; She has no comforter. 'See, O Lord, my affliction, For the enemy has magnified himself!' The adversary has stretched out his hand Over all her precious things, For she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, The ones whomThou didst command That they should not enter into Thy congregation. ...".

Wandered

Forgive all of us Lord for seeking our days and our futures through our own ideas of ownership instead of seeking Your will.

Thank You for still waiting for us to see Your words, Your truth, and Your open doors inviting each of us to return.

We pray for all our precious ones to follow Your light and ask You to break any chains that still keep anyone from a relationship with You. For You to be each one's heart center.

Please guide all our prayers as You remind us and lead us to dissolve all that is error. We pray Lord, that as Lent has reminded us, to recognize Your truth. And that all Your children from all ages, all countries, and all heritages be restored to You.

Your thoughts,

Empty: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                 Empty

                She wanders through

                familiar streets

                empty.

                Children's laughter

                once vibrant

                echoes hollow

                in the silence.

                Her hands trace

                shells of

                past pleasure

                as she walks

                by

                homes, shops

                now shapeless haunts.

                Turns quickly

                at sudden noise

                only wind blown debris

                clanging.

                Resumes penance

                walk

                hungry for days of old

                remembering precious

                things,

                lost

                captured by

                her transgressions.

Psalm 37:2: "for they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb."

Reflection: Wither: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions 

                1. Where do you feel loss most recently?

                2. What words from the lament echo your experience? Or do you find it difficult to  relate?

                3. How do you keep bitterness away when it nibbles at you in emptiness?

                4. Is there something you need to release and return to the Lord in penitence?

Share: How have you found His peace in times of loss before? How is this different?

Wither: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reading: Lamentations 1:3-7: "Judah has gone into exile...The roads of Zion are in mourning...All her gates are desolate...Her enemies prosper...In the days of her affliction and homelessness Jerusalem remembers all her precious things that were from the days of old...".

Wither 

Sometimes, or maybe too often, we forget to seek through the past as well as the present to see links. Again and again world wide throughout the centuries countries have become desolate by wars and lies and disease. And now pandemic.

Yet we still look only at the outer destruction and often ignore the parts of ourselves that have already become separated from the Lord--until we come into danger.

At some level each of us needs to recognize our emptiness to be restored to His 'city'. To be restored to the home His has chosen for us, heart home, both here and when time to move to heaven.

Lord, we ask You to give us insight and courage to live into Your truth in all circumstances and not let go.

And then share with those around us Your truth and guidance. Your heart home. With compassion and trust and faith.

Your thoughts,

Desolate: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                 Desolate

                Darkened night

                desolate streets

                not the rest of dreams

                nor of peace.

                Rather despair spreading

                rustling through

                bondage packaged

                built in reckless.

                Abandon over years

                a self-designed

                city once puffed with pride

                crumbles under foundation.

                Weeps bitter tears

                without hope.

                Onlookers scoff

                or mourn

                lost heritage

                lost legacy.

Psalm 37:1: "Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers."

n.