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.

Reflection: Weeping: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 Reflection Questions

                1. In what ways do you identify with this city's lament? Do you have areas in your life that have changed or been lost?

               2. Have you experienced an enormous loss or a betrayal of a friend?

               3. How are you expressing your disappointment to God? To others?

Share: How else has your relationship with the Lord been affected?

Introduction: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

 "Truly, Truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world  will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy." John 16:20 NAS

                                Introduction

The season of Lent, we now complete this week, has often been seen as a spiritual preparation for Christians to prepare our hearts for Jesus' sacrificial gift of grace.

The forty days are often considered a time of sorrow and grief that remembers His crucifixion to give us God's gift of grace. Through our loss we too can begin to recognize the shadows and barriers we have set around God's promises and reopen His call to pursue life under His influence.

Lament goes beyond our very heartsick trials to consider even our deepest sorrows, including those we may have hidden from ourselves. A lament is considered a passionate expression of grief that we often instinctively neutralize because the pain is too hard to bear.

The "Book of Lamentations" expresses one of Israel's worst seasons of history where death, decay, disease, and disillusion completely separated them from God's presence individually and as a chosen nation. It is a brutal  and unrelenting scripture.

Yet before healing could be accepted the darkness needed to be brought into God's piercing light. Like a surgeon's skillful knife removing an unseen cancer before the spreading poison completely corrupts.

As we pause we are invited to connect our spiritual hunger with the loving call from God. We can recalibrate and embrace a new beginning, even in the midst of extreme brokenness that our world is facing.

In the next forty weeks may the following passages, poems, and writing prompts refresh and restore our hearts in the Lord's everlasting grace. And form a foundation of hope for present or future sorrow knowing that His love is eternal.

Weeping: Lamentations: Prayers and Poetry

Reading: Lamentations 1:1-2, "How lonely sits the city....All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; They have become her enemies."

Weeping 

How true this grief feels throughout every community as the pandemic has brought so much loss and suffering. But it also goes deeper into each persons loss and tears in isolation. Even with some things that had no real value.

When we are emptied for any reason, we see what "dissolves" and what truly matters. especially when separated from loved ones.

And yet within the desolation and destruction we can search for the Lord as we remember He is present. And He has not turned away from us even when we have drifted from Him.

Show us, we pray, how to walk with You again, Lord, every moment in simple obedience to Your will. To be able to let go of anything that is false or not on Your path. To bring our brokenness into Your light. To live in Your resurrection power step by step.

Your thoughts,

Bitter Weeping: Grace in the Wilderness: Prayers and Poetry

Bitter Weeping

Bitter weeping

lament poured out

must recognize

crashing loss

bear the pain

let heartache shout

melt to prepare

comfort’s restoration

begin to mend

light hope’s candle

move toward faith

continuous journey

bitter weeping

linked in love

marking ongoing cost through

Christ’s mercy.

Romans 8:15, “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, ‘Abba! Father!’”

Come: Grace in the Wilderness: Prayers and Poetry

                       Come

                        With weeping

                        they shall come

                        whether in grief or

                        thankfulness

                        walking by streams

                        threading towards life

                        waters guided by prayers

                        together

                        without stumbling

                        towards an inheritance

                        wrapped in wonder.

If accept the gift.

If accept His forgiveness.

If walk in trust.

Romans 8:9, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”

Weeping: Grace in the Wilderness: Prayers and Poetry

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Jeremiah 31:9, “With weeping they shall come, And by supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk by streams of waters, On a straight path in which they shall not stumble; For I am a father to Israel, And Ephraim is My first-born.”

“With weeping they shall come.”

Tears of grief, tears of loss, tears of astonishment, tears of mercy, and tears of hope, are often all mixed up when we come to the Lord. Confused—disoriented—wary and yet clinging to His promises.

Especially when our paths become muddled.

Yet, He waits for each of us to accept His direction. He will carry us as a beloved child. He replaces our fears with trust, our failures with His faithfulness. We have the opportunity to look to new plans with curiosity and hope instead of fretting.

He gives us clarity on His straight road. He closes false routes. He leads with love.

Thank you Lord for Your ongoing multiple streams. Not just one flow that if we miss we are lost, but ongoing streams for every moment of our lives.

Please keep our hearts turned towards Your words and listening to Your Spirit’s guidance. Help us to be as willing to bring our weeping and failures as well as our joys and successes.

Your Thoughts,