Abundant Love - Lamentations

This book of Lamentatioins is the only book in the entire Bible that is about lamenting, crying and morning. It is about the fall of Jerusalme (Zion) and the temple. It is about the mothers who ate their babies and now morn about it ... but at the time still did it. It is about the fact that there is no prophet left to give a true word of the Lord ... but at the time they rejected that prophet. It is about the time their enemies conquered them rather than when they were conquered by Israel. This is a bad time in the nations history and their is nothing but lamentations. But, like all books in the Bible it still has the message of hope ... and maybe it is a book that shows we can have hope in the midst of our own discipline. In chapter three (sandwiched in between the bread of sorrow) we have the meat of the issue. Jeremiah, the assumed author, gives us some of the greatest words ever penned on God's love, faithfulness and kindness. Our great Christian classic, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness" is written off these words in the great Lamentations. The author tells us that "when he recalled to mind" the faithfulness and kindness of the Lord "he had hope" (3:21). And, that is the key to the book and to the Bible and to life. He "recalled to mind" God's faithfulness and that gave him hope. When you and I sin and we are being disciplined by the Lord; or, when we fall into pain and suffering just from the difficulty of life, Satan doesn't want us to "call to mind" the things of the Lord. He wants us to fear and fail. God is in the business of showing us His compassion and love for us. He wants us to "call it to mind." The next time you are in a difficult situation and finding yourself lamenting and looking for comfort, "call to mind" the compassions of the God ... they are new every morning. When you "will" is having a tough time engage your "mind" to remember your God.