praying effectively: Examine Our Ways (Lam.3)

(Lamentations 3:1-40)

 I am the man who has seen affliction because of the rod of His wrath.
2 He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light.
3 Surely against me He has turned His hand repeatedly all the day.
4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
6 In dark places He has made me dwell, like those who have long been dead.
7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.
8 Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in secret places.
11 He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He has made me desolate.
12 He bent His bow and set me as a target for the arrow.
13 He made the arrows of His quiver to enter into my inward parts.
14 I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their mocking song all the day.
15 He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood.
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
17 My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness.
18 So I say, “My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the Lord.”

19 Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.

20 Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me.
21 This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope.
22 The Lord’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I have hope in Him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him.
26 It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent since He has laid it on him.
29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, perhaps there is hope.
30 Let him give his cheek to the smiter, let him be filled with reproach.
31 For the Lord will not reject forever,
32 For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness.
33 For He does not afflict willingly or grieve the sons of men.
34 To crush under His feet all the prisoners of the land,
35 To deprive a man of justice in the presence of the Most High,
36 To defraud a man in his lawsuit—of these things the Lord does not approve.
37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?

39 Why should any living mortal, or any man, offer complaint in view of his sins?
40 Let us examine and probe our ways, and let us return to the Lord.

Reminder:  "praying effectively" involves knowing God's will.  When we pray in His will (in His name), He may choose to not answer those prayers in the time period that we would like, or HOW we would like - but He will answer those prayers!

It is God's will:
- that we seek the Lord (3:25)
- that we wait for the Lord to answer our prayer requests (3:25)
- that we examine and probe our ways to confess our sins, reconciling with the Lord (3:40)
- sin impedes prayer (3:8)

Today's prayer:

Dear Lord Jesus, thank You for being so faithful and just.  May our faith in You grow more as we see the evidence of You working in our lives.  Help us to remember that so often, the struggles we have in our lives are consequences of our own actions.  Bring to mind any sins we have committed that we have not yet confessed to, so that we may fully reconcile with You.

I know firsthand that confessing sin works!  Every little one that we so defiantly hang on to, as we try to justify ourselves, thinking that it wasn't so bad.  Even that pride which gets in the way of us confessing our sins is a sin.  Why do we hang onto these things?  Why not lighten our load?  Why not share our burdens with You?  Lord, You are able to bear all these burdens, because You already did this when You were hanging on the cross.

You took on and paid the price for every single sin (great or small) - of every person - past, present and future!!!  And so as we confess our sins to You, You not only lighten the burden from the weight of our sins, but You lighten the burden of the struggles we are going through.

Help us not play the victim, but may we reign with You victoriously in Your strength!  Help us to know and fully appreciate that we have eternal security in Your grace, so that we may be bold and confident in Your love, able to live and speak this out to those around us.  Amen.