DCLM Daily Manna 26 June 2022 Devotional By Pastor W. F. Kumuyi — In Trouble, Plead For Mercy
TOPIC: In Trouble, Plead For Mercy (DCLM Daily Manna 26 June 2022)
TEXT: Lamentations 5:1-22 (KJV)
1 Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.
2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.
3 We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.
4 We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.
5 Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.
6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
7 Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.
8 Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.
9 We gat our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.
10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.
11 They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.
12 Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.
13 They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.
14 The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their musick.
15 The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.
16 The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!
17 For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
18 Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.
19 Thou, O Lord, remainest for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.
20 Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time?
21 Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.
22 But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.
KEY VERSE: “Wherefore dost thou forget us for ever, and forsake us so long time? Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old” (LAMENTATIONS 5:20, 21).
MESSAGE:
The escape route for many people in spiritual crisis is to lament endlessly about their pathetic condition, and recounting what others did to them. They believe that when they do that long enough, they will attract the sympathy and support of other people. But what they really need is neither sympathy nor support, but a remedy to whatever caused the break in ties with God.
In our text, Jeremiah pleaded with God to remember the plight of the children of Israel and to consider the evil that had come upon them. Strangers had taken over their houses, their children had been orphaned and their women had been widowed. They were persecuted, subjected to hard labour and denied rest. They helplessly served the heathen nations that oppressed them. Jeremiah said they were paying the price for their fathers’ sins. They were being ruled by servants, and there was no one to deliver them. They faced terrible famine, and laboured so hard to feed themselves. No one had any cause for joy or pleasure; the weight of sin was heavy on them. They became discouraged and despondent, as desolation reigned all around them. He acknowledged that God had not changed, that He remains the same in all generations. Then, he pleaded that the Lord should restore them to their old relationship, and cease to be angry with them.
Every act of sin will eventually be punished. At such times, it will be clear that God has turned away from the sinner. Yet, He does not abandon people altogether. He expects the sinner to plead for mercy, repent and return to Him. When this is done, He will surely receive him/her.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:
Let your suffering turn you to God, not away from Him.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR:
Zechariah 6-9
DCLM Daily Manna was written by Pastor W. F. Kumuyi; is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church situated at KM 42 on the busy Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Nigeria.
