Threads from Henry's Web

Tag: honesty

  • Lamentations 1:22 – Torment Them!

    Lamentations 1:22 – Torment Them!

    22 ‘Let all their evil deeds come before you; torment them in their turn, as you have tormented me on account of all my sins; for I groan continually and I am sick at heart.’

    The Revised English Bible (Cambridge; New York; Melbourne; Madrid; Cape Town; Singapore; São Paulo; Delhi; Dubai; Tokyo: Cambridge University Press, 1996), La 1:22.

    I’m going to keep this one short, but first, a note on Bible study. Just because someone is reported as saying or doing something in the Bible doesn’t make that statement or action right. After all, we have the words of the serpent in the garden recorded, and they contained falsehood and led to some pretty nasty consequences.

    So just because these lines of prayer are here in Lamentations doesn’t mean the desire for revenge is a positive thing. In fact, a desire for revenge can be self-destructive.

    We’ll have plenty of opportunities to discuss revenge as we go verse by verse. But here I just want to comment on honesty.

    What can you present to God in prayer? Is anything off limits?

    I would suggest from this passage and many more in the Psalms and elsewhere that you can speak to God in prayer about anything you are feeling and thinking. Forgiveness is good, but so is honesty. You don’t need to worry about what God is going to do with your statement. You’re not going to lead God into wrong actions.

    What’s more, there’s no benefit in not telling God what you really feel. Do you think God doesn’t know already?

    Honesty is good. Speaking your mind is good. It’s really a prerequisite to change and growth.

    Here’s the question: Are you going to let God grow you?

  • Look LORD! – Lamentations 1:11

    Look LORD! – Lamentations 1:11

    11 All her people groan as they search for bread; they trade their treasures for food to revive their strength. Look, O LORD, and see how worthless I have become.

    The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989), La 1:11.

    I’m using the NRSV rendering of this verse, but I would use something like “contemptible” for “worthless” in the final line of the verse.

    We often hear a line like this from a child: “Look at me!” It’s a call for attention, for affirmation, and for reassurance. In the child it doesn’t come from a place of lament, or even all that likely from a place of failure. It’s simply a desire to be acknowledged in whatever way.

    As believers, we ultimately find our value in our creator. We want to be affirmed. We want God to notice. Job’s cry through his complaints is that God needs to respond to him, to notice him and react. In the end, Job gets no answers to his spoken questions. What he gets is the clear evidence that God is there and aware of him.

    For Israel in the exile one of the greatest threats was the loss of identity. So many people lost their identity in that same time frame. Centuries later you couldn’t really identify Moabites, Ammonites, or Philistines, for example. But you can still identify the descendants of the people of Judah.

    Surviving this is intimately tied to lament. Lament acknowledges that things have gone wrong. It is our realization of how bad things have become. I’m sure some readers, should they continue to read this series at all, will be impatient at the dismal tone of these verses. Surely I could summarize everything up to 3:22 in one or two posts and then we could get on to the positive.

    But sometimes our problems aren’t solved in that short of a period of time. One of the things that prevents solving problems and growing from them is the failure to acknowledge them.

    Are you ready to say, “Look, LORD!” and then be honest with yourself about what the Lord sees? When that is done, healing can begin.

    (Featured image generated by Jetpack AI.)

  • Psalm 119:49 – Remember!

    Psalm 119:49 – Remember!

    Remember your word to your servant,
    upon which you have caused me to hope.

    We have another imperative, but this one is addressed not to us, but to God!

    My wife sometimes is hesitant to remind me of things. She doesn’t want to say, “Henry, you forgot …” or “Please remember my ….” She especially wants to avoid nagging. That’s because she and I are both–shock!!!–human, and neither of us really likes to be reminded of something we remember. I’ve told her that it’s not nagging when I don’t remember the first time she said it, but she is still careful about this.

    God is not thin skinned. You can remind God of God’s own word. God’s ego is not fragile.

    One of the key things I like to say about prayer, and one I think is both true and important, is that you don’t need a particular format to talk to God. Often we’re afraid to express what we’re really feeling to God. Possibly, we imagine that a prayer that’s strongly worded might offend the Almighty. A good antidote to this is to read the Psalms, and this verse is one of the tamest examples.

    You can tell God you’re angry. You can tell God you’re sad. You can remind God of all the promises you’ve read. You can mention that you’re getting impatient. God already knows, so not only do you not need to hide it, it won’t do you any good.

    And in reminding God, it’s just possible you may actually remember those promises yourself.

    What promise do you need to call to God’s attention?

    (Featured image from Adobe Stock By Azovsky. Licensed. Not public domain.)