Sweet Remembrance

            Have you ever felt like someone from the Bible?  Seriously, if I were to ask you that question, which person written in the records of scripture could you identify with the most?  Are there certain Biblical men or women that have faced similar struggles as you have?  Or maybe you feel in touch with a special Bible passage because of certain character traits or personality styles you share with its characters?  Sometimes as we progress through life we may be able to attach ourselves differently to different places or points of scripture. Many times as our lives change, so do our interests in one book of the Bible or another.  God designed His Word to be able to reach us specifically no matter what we face or feel.  If there is an emotion you carry, a burden you bear, or a mess you find yourself in… it’s in there.            

            Being a right-brained artistic driven person, I very easily relate to the poetic prose and verses of the Psalms.  The book speaks my same language, my native tongue, one that I can breathe in and enjoy with ease.  I can especially identify with David almost too easily, as I can read about a man with a pure heart who clung to his God through the many ups and downs his life handed him.  There is a certain artistic expressive response of the psalmist’s heart to the hard events of life that just rings true in my ear, heart, and soul.  When David clings to his God in times of deep trouble, it ministers to me like no other.  I have had the Lord speak to me more through the book of Psalms than any other book of the Bible, and enjoy reading something from the book each day.  It is a lifeline.

            Recently though, things have been very hard for my family and I.  Although God is blessing us in such substantial and tangible ways, so these are the same times that the enemy also likes to distract and confuse us.  The rough times for us started during a recent doctor visit last week.  All along through this journey of recovery from my accident, there has always been a glimmer of shining hope in some distant land that one day I would be fully recovered.  It was in this visit however, that the first mention of the word non-recovery was spoken. Up to that moment, nobody really knew when I would get better, but they always figured that I would.  To hear for the first time that that I might not recover, well, it was a hard thing to hear.  It was a low blow to my hopes, dreams, and future goals. It was something that I didn’t expect to hear, and accompanied with the stress other things that heaped on me right after my appointment was over, I felt it was a bit too hard to hold.

            It is hard to explain, but this past year, as I read through my one-year Bible, the Lord seemed to be able to speak to me no matter what the very next page my bookmark held.  It was a mystery I still haven’t figured out yet, save for the explanation that God’s Word is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword (Hebrews 4:12).  Oddly enough, my bookmark seems to hold the place of the next message God needs to speak to me, in the exact moment that I need to hear it, and that aligning is nothing short of miraculous.  Right after hearing the news of these and other struggles last week, I opened up to “dine on the Lord’s daily bread.”  I was wowed with what it had to show me.

            I had been reading through Jeremiah. The prophet of old had been put through the wringer of life.  Time after time all he did was obey, and time after time all that happened to him was persecution, affliction, and struggles.  There was no way for me to read the book of Jeremiah without feeling a tremendous sense of pity for the man.  I could feel myself saying over and over, “For crying out loud! The poor guy!”  Reading through it, you would think that things couldn’t get any worse for him, yet they did.  I just felt sorry for him.  How or why would things get worse for Jeremiah only after he did that which God required of him?  It didn't seem right. He did things the way they were supposed to be done.  He didn’t ask for trouble.  He didn’t ask for all these bad and crazy things to happen. But they did.

            Finishing the book of Jeremiah, I started into Lamentations.  It expresses the prophet’s burdens and deep sorrow for his country and people.  No doubt many of us can identify with his words of grief and agony as I did, finding once again a place in scripture that I could clearly relate to.  It was both hard to read and relieving… but that was because I knew what was coming.  I had read it before.

Lamentations 3:1-26

I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of his wrath;

he has driven and brought me

into darkness without any light;

surely against me he turns his hand

again and again the whole day long.

He has made my flesh and my skin waste away;

he has broken my bones;

he has besieged and enveloped me

with bitterness and tribulation;

he has made me dwell in darkness

like the dead of long ago.

He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;

he has made my chains heavy;

though I call and cry for help,

he shuts out my prayer;

he has blocked my ways with blocks of stones;

he has made my paths crooked.

He is a bear lying in wait for me,

a lion in hiding;

he turned aside my steps and tore me to pieces;

he has made me desolate;

he bent his bow and set me

as a target for his arrow.

He drove into my kidneys

the arrows of his quiver;

I have become the laughingstock of all peoples,

the object of their taunts all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness;

he has sated me with wormwood.

He has made my teeth grind on gravel,

and made me cower in ashes;

my soul is bereft of peace;

I have forgotten what happiness is;

so I say, “My endurance has perished;

so has my hope from the Lord.”

Remember my affliction and my wanderings,

the wormwood and the gall!

My soul continually remembers it

and is bowed down within me.

            It is clearly evident that Jeremiah is in deep despair.  To hear the words that he speaks and writes, as he pours out his complaint to God, is even hard on somebody else to read through.  To be in this much anguish, physically, mentally, and emotionally would be almost unbearable. The poor Jeremiah was in a crazy tough place that none of us would sign up for, or wish to be in.  Though nobody wants to invite trouble into our lives, many of us are indeed in that same place of despair that the prophet found himself in.  Many of us know exactly what he is talking about.  If you are someone who can relate to these words of grief, due to physical hardships, loss, or a trying time in your life, then read on… for this blog post is for you.

            Even in the midst of such treacherous pain, Jeremiah does something that we all can learn from.  His solution is very simple.  He remembers the goodness of the Lord.

But this I call to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in him.”

The Lord is good to those who wait for him,

to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly

for the salvation of the Lord.

            When finished reading, I wrote the day’s date in my Bible beside its priceless words, noting the accompanying page in my journal (as I often do).  It is my way of showing true credibility to the words of scripture that others might not believe in, and I highly suggest doing the same thing in your own life.  Though some may doubt, I on the other hand have lived the words printed in scripture.  Time and time again through the pages of my Bible are dates and notes of when God specifically spoke to me, proving His Words are truth.  When times get hard (even if I forget God's goodness), I can fall back on what God has taught me in the past by reading these notes. This time, even in my hardship of a crazy week, it was no different.

            I read the cry of Jeremiah, then read the medicine for the soul.   These words soothed over me like healing balm or medicine.  There was a peace that washed and bathed my insides and outside, knowing that the same God who spoke these words to Jeremiah was right here speaking them to me.  How powerful they were.  How mysteriously beautiful the passage was.  How providentially it spoke to me at this time of my need.  How precious the cherished words clung to my heart.

            Though the world beat me down, my God can stand me up.  He can brush off the dust and dirt on my pant legs.  He can straighten up the collar of my shirt and fix my messed up hair. Even if one is buried in the stress or trouble of the world’s week we live in, our God can soothe over us with precious words like this.  Jeremiah knew that the one thing that could save him in the middle of such dreadful and dire straights of life was to think and dwell on the Lord, bringing to remembrance His goodness and mercy.   It is a simple little thing to do that brings great relief.  When you focus your mind on how much the Lord loves you, how great His mercies are, and how amazing His faithfulness is to you… what was my problem again?  That’s right.  The problems seem to fade away.

            Your situation might not change.  The place of hardship might not get easier. A physical ailment might not miraculously be healed, and bright lights might not shine on you from heaven above. But do you know what will happen?

            I guarantee that if you focus on these things like Jeremiah did, the same thing that happened to him and the same thing that happened to me will occur in your situation.  You will have hope.  You will have strength in your soul.  Your perspective of the matter will change.  The size of your problem will change in the significance of God’s goodness.  When you see how much God loves you, the problems of this world will seem to fade away.  When you remember God’s faithfulness, it will allow you to see that things are not hopeless and lost. I guarantee that if you earnestly search for the Lord with a desperate heart, He will be found of you.  It is a promise proved well.  His medicine will wash over you in peace. He will soothe your soul. He will show you a hope that you never knew possible.  He loves you that much.

            So today’s challenge is one for the hurting soul.  Are you somebody that can easily relate to the despair of the poor prophet Jeremiah?  Are you facing hardships that seem too hard or brutish to bear?  Spend time thinking on God’s goodness.  Bring to remembrance how God’s love never ceases.  Ponder how His mercies never end.  Write them down. Each morning there is something out there that proves how His mercies are new, alive, and waiting for you.  They really are there.  Read the passage of scripture that I have included in the blog post again.  Meditate on it.  Let it float through your heart and mind; keep it with you all day long and carry it with you.  It is impossible to be brought down by the weight of the world when you are fully engulfed in the awareness of God’s devoted love and affection for you.  He pursues you with relentless compassion. He has an unlimited amount of mercy and faithfulness that He has devoted just to you.  There is no way to fully explain His love for you on this side of eternity.

            And these things will bring you hope.

            I know this because they brought hope to me.

By Chuck Carr