Walls: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                 Walls

                Her city now her prison

                walks the streets

                walled by pride

    

                haunting memories

                now chains gripping

                prayers, tighten

                not spoken

                powerless to climb

                away from past

                decisions.

Psalm 37:12: "The wicked plot against the righteous, and gnash their teeth against them."

                

Distress: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

                           Distress

                        Walls breached

                        streets empty

                        silent distress

                        wails throughout.

                        Shadows creep

                        living dead

                        linger as corpses in

                        stricken city.

                        Lamentation

                        weaves darkness

                        wounded stagger

                        left to mourn.

Psalm 37:11: "But the meek shall inherit the land, and delight themselves in abundant prosperity."

                         

Reflections: Walls: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions:

                1. Have you had a season of bitterness, either within yourself or from another?

                2. In what ways did it taint all aspects of your days?

                3. How did you find your light in that situation?

 Share: How does that experience guide you now in times of darkness?

Walls: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reading: Lamentations: 3:4-6: "... He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. In dark places he has made me dwell....".

Walls

Sometimes in difficult situations, and sometimes in our thoughts alone, we think we have been abandoned. But He is always with us.

It has taken many years for some of us to recognize why these pulls into dark places, but now we hope to turn to You immediately, or not wait too long to seek Your guidance.

We have not always understood and still may not fully grasp why. But maybe even without being able to identify the reason of the darkness we can truly understand there will come the power and the blessing of Your light in Your time.

And maybe instead of building a cold heart to others we can begin to understand and act with compassion?

Lord, please keep us in Your silence in all situations.

Your thoughts,

Shout: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Shout

Did they wonder at their

covenant just confirmed

as all ages marched in silence

around thick resistant

Jericho walls?

Not the battle plan

expected

yet trusted.

Chose to remember Jordan’s crossing

to acknowledge sovereign words

and to listen

with open hearts,

unlike their ancestors.

Received God’s sworn reward

city fell at a shout!

Astonishment.

                  

Reflection Walls: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

Reflection Questions

1.     Are you facing an impenetrable wall right now? What kind?

2.     If the Lord gives you an incomprehensible plan, how likely are you to trust it?

3.     Or do you think that all solutions from God need to appear confusing because that will confirm His Presence?

Share: How are you praying for clarity?

Walls: Word Ambassadors: Prayers and Poetry

 Reading: Joshua 6

“You shall not shout or let your voice be heard, nor shall you utter a word, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout!” Joshua 6:10

Israel trusted God and they crossed the Jordan safely. But now they had to face the formidable Jericho city and its valiant warriors. Perhaps their own warriors were ready at adrenalin high confidence and anxious to prove themselves in battle—show they would be loyal to whatever task God set before them.

Walk around Jericho for six days. Blow the trumpets. Be silent. When told to shout on the 7^th day—shout. Even the smallest children would not recognize these instructions as a military maneuver.

“For My thought are not your thoughts and my ways, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 55:8

The Lord placed before then a seemingly impossible assignment with no recognizable weapons or tactics to work with. A plan of attack with no precedent and later no replicated version.  Something like Jesus’ healings and teachings. As well as the Biblically recorded miracles of the Holy Spirit.  Unique—unexpected—deliberate—victorious whether the battle be spiritually unseen or physically tangible.

“Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit’, says the Lord of hosts.” Zechariah 4:6

Concrete proof of God’s ongoing provision. His way. His power. His promises.

Lord, by Your word, in Your time, by Your plans, comes salvation to Your people. Help us to accept and follow Your methods regardless of our confusion. Everyplace is always Your land, Your hope, and Your Presence as the way.

Psalm of Worship: Psalm 126: 5-6

“May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy.

Those who go out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy, carrying their sheaves.”