Lamentations and Blessings

Lamentations 3:21-23 says "I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all--oh, how well I remember-- the feelings of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: God's loyal love couldn't have run out, His merciful love couldn't have dried up. They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over) He's all I've got left."

We sing this song almost every Sunday. "Blessed be your name in a land that is plentiful, where your streams of abundance flows blessed be your name."

That part of the song is easy for me to sing. Its real easy for Christians to sing this when life is good, easy, when everything seems to be going ok.

But there is a part to that song that I just realized after singing it for years and years.

"Blessed be your name on a road marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering, blessed be your name"

Now the song becomes a little harder to sing. How am I to sing "Blessed be your name" when all I see is hurt?

How is it that over and over in the Bible we see a theme that as "followers", we are look at hurt, pain and suffering, then turn around and be joyful, and still some how still see Gods blessings?

For the past two years this is all I could see; pain, hurt, suffering. So how can I look back over the past two years and sing "Blessed be Your name"

I think for to many years, I "settled for mediocrity" in my walk with Christ. It became a routine. Reading Gods word was more about passing the test or preparing the sermon.
While reflecting over the past two years, I have come to realize that God was trying to get my attention. As my wife has found out, sometimes its hard to get my attention. So what happens. God knocks us to our knees. Why? because when we are on our knees, there is no where else to turn "BUT" to Him. We began to find comfort from the storm like never before, we began to look around at the hurt, the pain of being falsely accused, the sickness around us, the finacnal hurt from the econmoy, and still see that there is a loving God that is still holding on (Lam 3:21-23). When we are humbled/on our knees we begin to see things from a different perspective. We begin to see our need for Christ. As the verse in Lamentations says, He is all we have.

Francis Chen once said "when we love God, we naturally run to Him-- frequently and zealously". That's what God is wanting from us, in the hurt, pain and storms, He is desiring for us to run to Him with a new found: love,need, hope and JOY!?

As hard as it is fore me to say this, I am glad for the hurt, the pain, the feeling of hopelessness, because in that moment of need is when I found what I was missing, I found the message God was trying to get through to me.

Blessed be your name when the road is marked with suffering Blessed be your name!
Blessed be your name when there's pain in the offering, Blessed be your name!


Hebrews 13:8
"For Jesus doesn't change--yesterday, today, tomorrow, he's always totally Himself."

-Trey