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Lament awakens us to a broken world and a holy God. There is a great tension!
Last week we discussed what lament is and what it is not. In lament we do not complain for the sake of complaining, but we bring our anguish to God knowing that He hears us and is with us in our pain and that he is in the process of making all things new. (Already/not-yet)
Today we build on those truths and we will look at how suffering and the act of lamenting to God reveals our heart condition.
Therefore as we journey through the process of lament we learn to recognize what we are actually clinging to as our hope. Is it Him alone, something else or even God + something else. As Pastor Andrew (Idlewild) states in his sermon, God+anything=nothing.
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do His best for us, we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.” CS Lewis
Idols- anything more important than God.
Idolatry-(Gotquestions.org) “the worship of idols or excessive devotion to, or reverence for some person or thing.”
An idol is anything that replaces the one, true God. It is a matter of the heart and ultimately is rebellion against God.
Hardships reveal deep buried idols. The true test of idolatry in our lives is our response to it’s loss. Lament helps us uncover hidden idols by shining a light on the things which we place too much hope in. As in all idolatry, the idol we choose to worship soon owns us thereby controlling us.
EXAMPLE- “I am terrified to be completely broken.”
-Do I fear this more than I fear the Lord?
-Is it consuming more thoughts/actions than He is?
-If it is, I need to ask myself, why?
- Do I not trust His goodness, His ability to sustain me?
- Am I truly allowing Him to determine my true needs vs my perceived felt needs, etc?
We need to ask “why”- biblical speaking- do we want a thing.
This is why we write out our laments. It allows us to recognize what we are clinging tight to and prevents us from walking in denial or ignorance about our idolatry. Honest, emotive prayers allow us to wrestle- with the Spirit- and dig deep. It helps us separate real hurt from our own lusts and longings. (Objective truth vs Subjective feelings)
We must remember, God doesn’t always prevent suffering but He always transforms it.
Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me,
but God meant it for good,
to bring it about that many people should be kept alive,
as they are today.”
We cannot judge God’s actions or intentions with the comparison of what a person would/might do. “for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst…” (Hosea 11:9)
Psalm 9:10 “Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom.
Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment.”
What we fear shows our allegiance- it shows who/what is biggest in our lives. Feelings are a window to what is deep in our hearts. **Check your pocket for idols. (Syncretism/ Ex. Rachel)
Isaiah 50:10 “Who among you fears the LORD and obeys his servant?
If you are walking in darkness, without a ray of light,
trust in the LORD and rely on your God.”
Science has proven that we don’t have control over our reactionary feelings- they are instantaneous. (Take every thought captive 2 Cor. 10:5) Without honest revelation and repentance to God- He cannot work on something we deny even exists in our hearts. Whatever you think you need most- you will come to fear.
**Our greatest need however it to be right with Christ.
If we think that sin in any way is superficial, then we don’t understand it’s true nature. If we elevate ourselves to believe we are generally “good” people- fear of the Lord will be impossible.
“You will never make yourself feel that you are a sinner, because there is a mechanism in you, as a result of sin, that will always be defending you against every accusation. We are all on very good terms with ourselves, and we can always put up a good case for ourselves. Even if we try to make ourselves feel that we are sinners, we will never do it. There is only one way to know that we are sinners, and that is to have some dim, glimmering conception of God.” Martyn Lloyd Jones
Isaiah 33:6 “He will be the sure foundation for your times,
a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure.”
Many if not most of our “needs” are more accurately called lusts and the object of those needs are called idols that we ourselves have created and multiplied. We are controlled by our perceived “needs” and are living in an epidemic of emptiness. We keep a white- knuckled grip on our existence fighting for control and find ourselves disappointed that that the box we’ve put God in no longer contains Him. We adopt a sinful attitude that we believe God has actually betrayed us. But we are powerless to rescue ourselves.
***What or who controls you?
“A biblical psychology (study of the human mind and its functions) of emotion must begin and end with God. A theology (religious beliefs and theory) of emotion must begin with God and His self-description in the Scriptures because He is the eternal and Absolute Person, the Creator, the original whose image we bear. Our theology of emotion must end with God as well since all things, including our emotions, find their fulfillment in Him. “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” John Frame has aptly noted that we cannot know other things rightly without knowing God rightly, “essentially because the doctrine (set of beliefs) of the knowledge of God implies a doctrine of the knowledge of everything.” -Biblical Counseling Coalition
Jesus didn’t die to increase our self-esteem. He died to bring glory to the Father by redeeming people from the curse of sin. He, on the cross, dealt with our “spiritual” needs. Our tree “needs."
When psychological (affecting the mind) needs, rather than sin are seen as our primary issue not only is our self-understanding affected but the gospel itself is changed.
Feelings aren’t bad in and of themselves. They help expose a need or a want. It is an awakening so to speak. As with all created things, they were made to glorify Him. But if you exalt the individual and make emotions the path to truth, then whatever you feel most strongly will be considered both good and necessary for growth.
Instead of searching anywhere else to answer or fill that need we must look to God and remind ourselves of the gifts He has given to meet each of those needs. But, when feelings become more important than faith, God becomes less.
John 3:30 TLB “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”
Excruciating- The word comes from the Latin excruciare, and it was a Roman word meaning “as painful as a crucifixion or from/out of the cross.” The pain derived from crucifixion was so intense that the Romans had to create a new word for it, and that word is the root of excruciating.
On the other side of lament He bids us to heft our crosses and as we bear them, the Spirit labors with us. Suffering is sanctifying, not for self improvement but for the glory of Christ. Embrace suffering and enter into grief by lament.
The life of discipleship is not about getting stronger; rather it’s about growing more aware of our weakness and the Lord’s strength. Discipleship is dying to self. We “bear the cross” and it will kill us. An un-crucified disciple is a contradiction of terms.
Ask yourself, “Do I not want this because it’s uncomfortable?”
Being His follower is not about climbing a ladder of spiritual success but being greeted by mercy at the bottom of the ladder by the Lord who climbs down to us.
“So great is the Lord’s faithfulness so personal and sure, that He holds out just the right portion- everything we need for today. When we wake up to discover his daily, steady, restorative care our hope is renewed and our faith is reborn.”- M Fairchild
The battle is that we want the feeling of adequacy today for what we will go through tomorrow. But God says, “Trust me. I will give you what you need, when you need it.” Part of today’s mercy is the ability to trust that there will be sufficient mercy for tomorrow.
Lamentation 3:20 I will never forget this awful time,
as I grieve over my loss.
21Yet I still dare to hope
when I remember this:
22 The faithful love (hesed) of the LORD never ends!
His mercies never cease.
23 Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance;
therefore, I will hope in him!”
25 The LORD is good to those who depend on him,
to those who search for him.
The Lord doesn’t tell us to take a blind leap of faith. Rather, he bids us to step forth onto the solid rock of His promises. He doesn’t say, “just trust me.” He says, “Trust me because I am your God, I will be with you wherever you go. I will bless you and one day I will bring you forth from Egypt.”
Every lament is an Exodus journey.
1. Exile (separation- my god my god)
Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge”
2. Oppression (brokenness- my enemies surround me)
Exodus 1:11 “So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.”
3. God enriches at the expense of the oppressors (maturity, sanctification- yet)
Exodus 1:7,9 “but the Israelites were fruitful and increased rapidly; they multiplied and became exceedingly numerous... “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.”
4. Leave with more than they entered (redemption- you are mine forever)
Exodus 12:36 “And the LORD gave the people such favor in the sight of the Egyptians that they granted their request. In this way they plundered the Egyptians.”
2 Cor. 12:10 “Therefore I delight in weaknesses, in insults,
in calamities, in persecutions and difficulties for the sake of Christ,
for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.
The path of God’s love is not without suffering yet it leaves us overflowing.
***How then do I do this when I really don’t want to?
We live in the elusive place of acceptance by watching for, noting, gathering instances of hope and joy in one hand even while wrestling with our darkest hours in the other. (Already/not-yet). Goodness and evil at the same time.
“Yet” is the paradigm shift of all laments. It believes Jesus is enough. “Yet” hopes in God for God’s sake alone. We need to love God for who He is and not for His benefits. We must recognize the fleeting substance that our lives are on this side of eternity.
Barrenness:
The term barren [‘aqarah] derived from the Hebrew root ‘qr, meaning “to uproot or pluck up,” the opposite of “to plant”. This is not just a physical barrenness but it has spiritual and emotional connotations to it as well.
Three of the four matriarchs (Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel) in the Bible were barren. Hannah was also barren. Isaiah personifies Jerusalem as a “barren woman, who has borne no child…who has never been in labor…”
“Yet” our decree from God Himself is to be “fruitful and multiply.”
“How?”
Barrenness points to hopelessness and that is exactly where God works. It is here where we have nothing and are nothing without Him. In our weakness He is made strong. His glory is on display for the cosmos- not ours.
“Those who believe in the promise and hope against barrenness like those in our past, nevertheless must live with the barrenness.”
When Eve conceived Cain she wondered if this was The Promise God gave them. But it wasn’t- not “Yet”- but that didn’t mean it wasn’t being worked out.
Ecclesiastes 3:9,11,14 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.
Our hearts are always active either in bringing glory to God or to ourselves. In this sense the image of God in man in a verb. Not just who we are but what we do. People are most similar to God when He is the object of their affection.
As we seek to follow Jesus in our lives and make His name known, His resurrection becomes the universal “yet” to every heartbroken fact of our existence.
When we see our families torn apart and wonder if there is any hope for the future we say, “Yet Christ is risen.” When the physical pain feels impossible to bear, “Yet Christ is risen.” When the brokenness around us seems to overwhelm, “Yet Christ is risen.”
Jesus died yet He was raised!
This is why our laments turn back to God. This is who/what our faith needs to be placed in. He is our anchor in this chaotic, broken world. The Word of God must trump all other words. In order to believe it we must know it. If we are misguided in our understanding of God, then we will be misguided in His creation as well. If we are misguided about a created thing, it will become abused. The knowledge of God can’t truly be denied, it can only be distorted.
The line between lament and despair is thin but it matters. De (down from) sperare (hope). It moves down from hope while lament moves us up to hope.
The object of our hope is Christ; not striving to see the positive or looking on the bright side. No other God bares scars for us. He is not a God removed from our earthly turmoil.
When we read the psalms we must read each one 2xs. The first time we can allow it to speak for us. The second time we listen to it as the voice of Jesus to the ultimate enemy. This helps remind us that Christ suffered even more than any of us. It doesn’t minimize the pain but it does draw our attention outward and upward.
“Your kingdom come…”
“Where can I find my worth vs why am I so concerned about myself?”
“How can God fill my needs vs how can I see Christ as so glorious that I forget about my personal, perceived needs?”
The most basic question of our lives should become= How can I bring glory to God?
- Establish a daily tradition of growing in the knowledge of God. When suffering hits we go to our default ideas about God. Therefore, we need to be so focused on learning about Him that we forget about ourselves. When we spend time in the throne room of God, it puts things into perspective.
- Repent of seeking God so we can feel better about ourselves.
3. Read Hosea- God says, “your faithfulness will be a replica of mine.”
4. Ask God to teach you about this (Hosea) love so you can know it and give it.
5. We have to work hard at formally expressing our grief to God and we have to ask the Holy Spirit for His help.
The crocus is beautiful little flower that is a harbinger of spring symbolizing the triumph of life over death. Its eagerly awaited emergence from its snowy tomb is a cause for joy throughout our winter-weary land. Far from hurting the bulb, the snowy winter actually can act as an insulator to keep them from drying out. This magnificent masterpiece is also known as the Easter Flower, both because of the time of year when it comes forth, and because it may reappear at the end of the growing season.
Like this flower’s reminder that winter isn’t forever and the hope of new life is coming, we too have Christ’s resurrection to remind us that death is not eternal. We have a hope to look forward to in the bleak mid-winter of our lives. We have reminders of the already arriving but not in completion of His kingdom all around us. These reminders allow us to speak light to our hearts when it feels dark and hopeless.
Tolkien coined a phrase, “eucatastrophe”. In essence, a eucatastrophe is a massive turn in fortune from a seemingly unconquerable situation to an unforeseen victory, usually brought by grace rather than heroic effort.
“It is the sudden happy turn in a story which pierces you with a joy that brings tears”.
The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation- it’s the crocus flower. Maybe there is a sin, an idol, a brokenness in your life and you think “this is just how it is” but the resurrection says, no- that’s not how it has to be. There is hope and redemption and although it feels painfully slow, it is coming. (2 Peter 3:9 NLT) We lament in the space between suffering and restoration because God always has the final word! This is our “yet” in our laments.
1. Father, to Thee we look in all our sorrow,
Thou art the fountain whence our healing flows;
Dark though the night, joy cometh with the morrow;
Safely they rest who on Thy love repose.
2. When fond hopes fail and skies are dark before us,
When the vain cares that vex our lives increase,
Comes with its calm the thought that Thou art o’er us,
And we grow quiet, folded in Thy peace.
3. Naught shall affright us, on Thy goodness leaning;
Low in the heart faith singeth still her song;
Chastened by pain we learn life’s deeper meaning,
And in our weakness Thou dost make us strong.
4. Patient, O heart, though heavy be Thy sorrows;
Be not cast down, disquieted in vain;
Yet shalt thou praise Him, when these darkened furrows,
Where now He plougheth, wave with golden grain.
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