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Love
Teaching Text: Lamentations 3:18-26
So I say, “My splendor is gone
and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”
I remember my affliction and my wandering,
the bitterness and the gall.
I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me.
Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
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.
Themes
Consider these themes and ask your group what else they see in the passage:
Cry of the Prophet
Jonah - When We Hate God's Instructions
Formation
Thoughts and notes you can use for discussion:
Can you think of a time in your life when you wanted to give up? When you felt crushed by disappointment? When you felt you could not believe any more. Trust anymore. Love anymore. Go on anymore?
Jeremiah is a prophet who teaches us something about endurance. About reliable maturity.
Endurance and reliable maturity don’t sell much ad space in our culture.
Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet
He found a way to cling to God’s love and faithfulness even in the middle of despair, in the middle of what looked like failure, when his spirit was crushed, when surely he wished he could give up.
Anybody can say God you are my portion when you have as many portions of whatever else you want. But your city is crumbling and your life work lies in ruin and you can say to God...
You are enough for me. Your mercies are new every morning. You are my hope.
That type of prayer in the middle of despair is profound.
How do we do that?
Jeremiah had sense of being known by God
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
– Jeremiah 1:4-5
One of the first things after God calls Jeremiah by name is God tells Jeremiah that He has known him well before Jeremiah became aware of it.
God is an object about which we have questions. We are curious about God. We make inquiries about God. We read books about God. We get into late-night bull sessions about God. We drop into church from time to time to see what is going on with God. We indulge in an occasional sunset or symphony to cultivate a feeling of reverence for God.
“But that is not the reality of our lives with God. Long before we ever got around to asking questions about God, God had been questioning us. Long before we got interested in the subject of God, God subjected us to the most intensive and searching knowledge. Before it ever crossed our minds that God might be important, God singled us out as important. Before we were formed in the womb, God knew us. We are known before we know.”
– Eugene Peterson
JEREMIAH KNEW GOD HAD CALLED HIM AND HAD A VISION FOR HIM
Jeremiah has insecurity and he told it to God... This is the exchange...
Jeremiah 1:6–15
God met Jeremiah’s insecurity with two visions
The first was an almond tree branch - and there is little world play here...
The word “almond” and the word “watching” are nearly identical in Hebrew. “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I see a “shaqed” (“almond”). “Good eyes! I’m sticking with you. I am “shoqed” (“watching”) my word to make every word I give you come true.
God told Jeremiah that even the most difficult of unlikely things he had to say he wasn’t saying alone. God was watching his promises to make sure they were fulfilled.
The second vision was a boiling pot - Jeremiah had a difficult word to share: because God’s people had ignored His covenant with them and broken it over and over again finally that brokenness was going to become their defining reality.
God speaks to Jeremiah in these everyday items.
Do you believe God has a call on you?
Do you believe God has vision for you?
Is your vision for your life so manageable that you can go about pulling it off whether God is involved or not?
Jeremiah knew God knew him and knew God had plans for him....
One of the most famous verses of Jeremiah is 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
– Jeremiah 29:11.
Jeremiah ACCELERATED HIS MATURITY THROUGH OBEDIENCE
There can often be a huge gap in what we know about God and what we walk in.
There can be huge gap in what we want most for our lives and how we live on the daily.
Our maturity grows in leaps and bounds by following through on what God is asking us to do.
Jeremiah learned to trust and know God more and more by taking God’s invitations and following God’s commands.
Jeremiah became a new every morning person
He came to know by experience in the worst possible circumstances that....
Because of the Lord’s great love ,we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
– Lamentations 3:22-23
Jeremiah endured wicked rulers, humiliation, set backs, failure, war and exile to keep showing up God is still at word, God is still showing mercy. The headlines are not all there is.
