Prayer: Father, wise is Your Word. May I embrace and heed Your wisdom today and forever. Amen.
Reading: Lamentations 4 key: vs. 5-6 “Those who used to eat delicacies are desolate in the streets. Those who were brought up in purple embrace trash heaps. For the iniquities of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, which was overthrown in a moment, yet no hands turned to her.” TLV
Attention: I want to begin today’s journal with a shoutout to my mother. Her birthday is today, and I want to honor her in today’s journal. I pray that she is well-celebrated today by her family and friends.
I have not lived a life of royalty, have you? Purple is the color of royalty. The writer of Lamentations is providing us a picture of the level of depravity in Jerusalem. Those raised as royalty, (clothed in purple), were now dumpster diving for food. They were just as common as the poor.
How would you feel if God characterized your sin as “greater than the sin of Sodom?” (If you are not aware of Sodom’s sin, please read Genesis 19.) God intentionally immortalized Sodom’s sin because of how offensive it was to Him. He also historically preserved His destruction of the entire world in the story of Noah (Genesis 6-8). When sin reaches a level of wickedness, God has intervened. Might He intervene today?
What is necessary to avoid the kind of destruction which Noah, Lot, and Abraham witnessed? We witness in the story of Jonah, a nation (Nineveh) who repented and turned God’s wrath away from them.
I am not sure that there is a nation today, which does not need to repent and turn towards God. Some nations are more wicked than others, but it is safe to say that all nations sin is as great as Nineveh’s, and they avoided disaster by repenting.
I encourage everyone to receive the warning of scripture which God gave Israel and Jerusalem. According to the apostle Paul, the purpose of scripture is to provide a warning to us who follow Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:11), Will we heed the warning which God has provided for us in His word?
Action: I choose to study God’s word so that I can avoid the pitfalls of life and the destruction which sin brings to my life.
Yield: I choose to submit to the authority of scripture and the supremacy of God.
Engage: I choose to engage with the Holy Spirit in repenting and turning from my sin.
Relationship: I choose to live in holy, intimate relationship with God.
Prayer: Father, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a guide to my heart and mind. May I study Your word to know You and avoid the calamities common to sinful man. I praise You! Amen.
Memory Verse: 1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now these things happened to them as an example, and it was written down as a warning to us—on whom the ends of the ages have come.” TLV
Music Video: Third Day—Your Words https://youtu.be/9zaaiFp4RSM?si=YpmUhBbzzvzEP1Ni
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”