The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD. (Lamentations 3:25-26, NIV)
Maybe it doesn’t sit well with you to start the year by turning to the book of Lamentations. New years are supposed to be loaded with hope. We dream of the possibilities for our health, our prosperity, our relationships. And then, of course, are the dreams for our golf games. Will this be the year we finally break… (pick your magic threshold)?
If you’ve never read Lamentations, the short Old Testament poem tucked between the giants Jeremiah and Ezekiel, you’re forgiven. You may not even have known it was there. Or you’ve judged the book by its title and said to yourself, “Another time.” But the wonder in Jeremiah’s lamentations, though full of heartache, is that they are repeatedly laced with optimism. And by this I do not mean a cheery disposition that seeks to overcome in a mind-over-matter sort of way. Rather, Jeremiah kept reminding himself of the good in God and fought his depression with this substance.
To find goodness in God (or in anything for that matter) when we are surrounded with good is only natural. I do not mean that idiomatically. It is natural as opposed to supernatural. It takes nothing for a child to be happy on Christmas morning when she receives the very gift she asked for. The question is whether she will be happy when she is given something else entirely.
Does the mind turn toward hopelessness? Does it tell itself there is no way out?Jeremiah was surrounded by awful. That’s all. Awful. His homeland had been invaded by greedy conquerors. The temple had been raided, then destroyed. The people who weren’t hauled off or put to death suffered in great poverty. If ever a man had reason to lament, it was Jeremiah. His eyes were filled with the pain around him.
When such happens to a person, the question becomes, what will happen to their mind? To weep is an emotional reaction, expected and acceptable. But one can weep without despairing. Does the mind turn toward hopelessness? Does it tell itself there is no way out? Does it, where the mind meets the soul, listen to the enemy’s accusation that God does not care, that God may not even be there?
Here is the excellence of Jeremiah’s lamentations. In them, we see the deeply disturbed prophet fight the fight of truth in his own mind: Yes, my circumstances show me all that is evil, but this is not God’s character. God is good. And if I seek him, if I look to him—whatever patience this may demand of me—his goodness will shine through. I must maintain my hope!
Maybe your entrance into 2020 was something less than hopeful. Maybe your present circumstances are a display of awful. Fight the fight. Seek the Lord. He is good. And if you seek him, his goodness will come to you.
—
Jeff Hopper
January 7, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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