New book study! This month I am embarking on a verse by verse journey through Lamentations in the Old Testament.
One of the reasons I specifically wanted to slowly delve into this book is to uncover its profound insights on Biblically expressing our emotions.
I want to comfort people in a Biblical way, embracing the Bible’s holistic approach to our well-being.
Emotions can be messy and confusing. Bob Kellemen, a renowned former professor of biblical counseling at Faith Bible Seminary, sheds light on ways to express our feelings in a God-honoring manner. These same principles are beautifully woven throughout Lamentations as well.
First, there are two unbiblical ways to express emotion:
1. Out of control expression
Over controlled suppression
Out of control expression means indulging all of our feelings without any filter. It is what the Apostle Paul warned against in Ephesians 4:19 when he said people had sinfully “given themselves up to sensuality.” They did whatever they felt. Feelings became their god instead of their feelings directing them towards God.
Over controlled suppression means stuffing our feelings down or pretending they don’t exist. Paul also called this out in Ephesians when he said, “Be angry and do not sin” (Ephesians 4:26). Though it is not ok to sin, it is OK to acknowledge anger. Denial or self-deception towards our feelings does not work.
Where we see this in Lamentations: Lamentations is not a rant or an unmeasured outburst of feelings. It is a carefully constructed expression directed to God (e.g., “O LORD, behold my affliction” Lamentations 1:9). Yet the poet also did not suppress the very real hurt and pain he and others felt (e.g. “For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears… “ Lamentations 1:16).
Lord, enable and teach me to measure my emotions in a Holy way today. 🙌🏻❤️🙏
“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:20-21 ESV
How important is imagination to you? Remember as a kid using our imagination to play? We may have created worlds, stories, characters all by imagining what could be. Sadly, for many of us, practicing our imagination slowed down as we became adults. Honestly, this is a tragedy.
Reading brilliant fiction like C.S. Lewis and his space trilogy, Perelandra, or Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings stirs our imagination and helps us exercise a muscle that is actually vital to the Christian life.
In Ephesians 3:20, when Paul says, “more abundantly than all that we ask or think,” the English word “think” is the Greek word noeo, which deals with imagination. Paul expects us to think and imagine in anticipation of all that God would do for us, and reminds us that the spot where our imagination is exhausted, the good things God has for us expands even beyond that.
God’s intended and desired good for us is beyond our imagination and is possible because it is rooted in the power of the Spirit within us. (Ephesians 1:19)
There are some things that we ask God. There are some things that we think but do not ask because we are afraid they are “too much.” There are other things to which we could pray that are so grand, we haven’t even thought to pray them yet.
“Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.” Romans 8:26-27 ESV
God is not just able – He is MORE than able! 🙌🏻
The depth of God’s Word is amazing. Lingering in these two verses this morning blessed and convicted me in a NEW way. This morning when I woke up, I was thinking of my prayer journal and all of the prayers the Lord has answered and then out of nowhere I had the thought of “hmmm, I haven’t lifted up any BIG BOLD prayers in awhile”… I moved along in the morning not really thinking about that again until this morning’s Bible time.
The Lord really met me and expanded upon this mornings waking thought through these two verses.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.” James 4:7-10 ESV
These verses in James gives us an action plan for turning from our sin and living out our faith in God:
First we submit to God (4:7a). This means we acknowledge God’s wisdom is wiser than the ways of the world. We also recognize His rightful authority to direct our lives according to His wisdom.
Submitting is what we do – but practically HOW do we do it? James goes on…
We resist the devil (4:7b). The implication of the Greek word translated “resist” is “to stand against” or “withstand”. This infers a promise that whatever power Satan may have, we are ABLE to overcome him by God’s GRACE.
We draw near to God (4:8a). James appears to have Hosea 12:6 in mind: “so you by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.” James commands and promises were written to believers in Jesus. But rather than love and justice, these believers had demonstrated selfish ambition and partiality. James was not necessarily talking about drawing near to God for salvation here but he was referring to what repentance from sin looks like for Christ followers.
We wash our hands and purify our hearts (4:8b). This alludes to how Israelite priests prepared to minister before the Lord in the OT, reminding us that we are called to a high standard of behavior as Christ’s people. He washes us clean through the Gospel of His sacrificial death and resurrection, which we receive through the Word and which is how we draw near to Him. (Eph. 5:25b-27).
Finally, we grieve and mourn and wail over our sin (4:9). When we draw near to God, we become saddened over our inability to fully follow the Lord’s commands … but our weeping turns to exhalation as we experience God’s forgiveness of our sins through Christ (James 4:10).
All of these intentional choices result in our recognition of our deep spiritual need for our Savior.
Thanks be to God that Jesus has rescued us and promises to present us, the Church, before God’s throne as His beautiful bride.
“Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy,” Jude 1:24 ESV
Rather than trying to work our way into positions of power, recognition, or status, we can humbly sit in the presence of God. He positions us for purpose and purifies our hearts. As we acknowledge our desperation for His deliverance, He will forgive and exalt us.
“Do not fear, only believe” (Mk. 5:36). Jesus’s words in Mark show us that Faith is the solution to fear.
For my 9-5 job, I work with children and youth who are in foster care and their families. This involves investigating the circumstances that brought the children into care and combing through pages and pages of reports on a weekly basis. Just this last week I read that a client typically uses, “a boat and a half” of fentanyl multiple times a day. This phrasing caught my eye because for the first time in 10 years of reviewing these reports, I was not sure how much that meant… I did not know the “lingo” for this level of usage. I dropped to my knees praising the Lord that I did not know this! It reminded me of where Christ brought me from, He truly has “put a new song in my mouth” (Psalm 40:3).
This last month I have been doing a slow read through the book of Matthew. Matthew specifically grouped his book in topical order, not chronological order, with over 60% of the book containing teachings and guidance that Jesus personally spoke. Restoration to the Broken could be a title heading for the four miracles recorded in Matthew 9:18-38. In light of my reminder this week I want to look a little closer at two of these miracles recorded. A miracle restoring a Broken Home (vv 18-19, 23-26) and restoration of a Broken Hope (vv 20-22; Mark 5:26).
For sake of time I will not be including all of the passage text so I HIGHLY encourage you to look at the passages being discussed.
A BROKEN HOME: It must have been hard for Jairus to come to Jesus, since he was a devout jew and the leader in the synagogue. BUT Jairus’s love for his dying daughter compelled him to seek Jesus’ help, even if the religious leaders were opposing him. When Jairus first came to Jesus, his daughter was close to death. A delay caused by another woman ended with Jairus’s friends coming to relay the news that his daughter had died, no need to continue to bother the teacher.
Jesus, being compassionate, reassured Jairus and went with him.
This delay gave Jairus a great opportunity to see what a MEAGER Faith can accomplish.
No matter how our circumstances look, no matter what other’s say, no matter how we feel; We should trust Jesus and His promises. Jairus was frightened – yet Jesus took command and raised the girl from the dead.
The Gospel teaches us we are saved by GRACE not by worth
A Broken Hope: A woman who for 12 years had been ill with a hemorrhage, a discharge of blood. Mark 5:26 informs us that this woman had tried many physicians, but none could help her. Imagine the despair and discouragement she felt. Her hopes were shattered. Because of this hemorrhage, the woman was ceremonially unclean (Lev. 15:25), which only added to her hopelessness, as she had no community.
It is interesting that Jairus and this woman – two opposite people – met at the feet of Jesus. Jairus was a leading Jewish man; she wan an anonymous woman, with no prestige or resources.
He was a synagogue leader, while her affliction kept her from worship. Jairus came pleading for his daughter; the woman had a need of her own. The girl had been healthy for 12 years and then died; the woman had been ill for 12 years and was now whole. Jairus’s need was public – all knew it; the woman’s need was private only Jesus understood. Both Jairus and the woman trusted Jesus, and He met their needs.
Jairus could have resented the woman, because she kept Jesus from getting to his daughter before she died. But his real problem was not the woman but himself. He needed faith in Christ. Jesus forced the woman to give her testimony (See Mark’s account, Mark 5:25-34) BOTH for her sake and for the sake of Jairus. The fact the God has helped others ought to encourage us to TRUST Him more.
We can wait for the Lord – knowing that He is never late.
The woman’s faith was almost superstitious, and yet, Jesus honored it and healed her. We (people) must “touch” Christ where we/they are able, sometimes the starting place is at the hem of His garment. The Pharisees enlarged their hems and tassels in order to appear more spiritual, but they lacked the power to heal (Matt. 23:5). Others touched the hem of Jesus’s garment and were also healed (Matt. 14:34-36).
The woman’s meager faith reminded me this week of the amount of physicians, therapists, and others I consulted with when I was lost in my addiction, under the deep waters of sexual abuse and trauma, injuring my self as to show on the outside what an “outcast” I was on the inside and without community. Time and time again I sought healing but was never healed. Time and time again I walked away with a false hope, one that would slip away…
Until I touched the hem of Christ’s garment.
It was scary at first, scary to trust in something I could not see, something that required a full trust, but would leave me healed.
Now looking back over all of these years I can see just how small my Faith started out and how Jesus honored that and healed me. For some things it was quick and immediate like the woman with the hemorrhage, for other things it took time and took me growing in my faith, like Jairus I needed to see and hear the testimony of others, to trust what I could not see. To turn away from how things “looked” or “felt” to me and to Trust in Jesus.
I don’t know what your fear is today, friend. Maybe your are praying for healing for someone else, like Jairus was with his daughter or maybe your like the Woman and have an ailment of your own. Whatever it is, reach out for Christ.
Come like Jairus or come in fear and trembling like the Woman. The Greek word for “made well” can mean either “heal” or “save”. God is the one who heals. “In this instance this Woman’s FAITH was the divinely appointed means for her bodily healing AND for her spiritual salvation.”(Warren Wiersbe).
For me, I needed both healing and salvation, God brought what was dead to life.
Jesus did not come to mix the law and grace, HE came with New Life.
This girl was lostThis girl was brokenNow a Daughter of the King
Do not fear – only Believe… Jesus is the ONE who takes what is unclean and makes it clean, takes what is dead and brings it to New Life.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
When Sir James Simpson, the inventor of chloroform, was dying, a friend said to him, “You will soon be resting on His bosom.” The scientist replied: “I don’t know as I can do that, but I think I have hold of the hem of His garment.”
It is not the strength of our faith that saves us, but faith in a STRONG Savior.
The Meek Momma 