"Restore Us to Yourself" Lamentations 3-5; Hebrews 10:19-39

How lonely sits the city that was once full of people!
A city like a widow.  Now like a forced laborer.
All her lovers have dealt treacherously with her. 
No one comes to the feasts anymore.

"I well remember my afflictions and my soul is downcast within me.
But T.h.i.s. I call to my mind, therefore I have Hope. 
Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed.
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.
It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young."
Lam 3:20-27

All I can say is Amen.  Here is a guy who has hit rock bottom.
Yet, look what he calls to his mind. 
Oh God, right where I sit this very day,
May I, May we all call to mind Your Great Love and Compassion. 

Remember my affliction and my wanderings. My soul continually remembers and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind. And therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. Lam 3:19-23. The verb "remember" is a gerundial infintive better taken as an imperative. Remember mine affliction. It's a direct address to Jehovah. Remember. "He hath bent His bow." us to Yourself, O Lord, that we may be restored.  Lam 5:21. 

I sit in a funk, despondent in my present circumstances.  And since I am the only one talking to myself tonight, it's hard to know if I have fully repented or keep taking it back?  You see, this is about how others are responding to me---and it shouldn't be.  May we all find a deeper trust, an abandoned surrender.

 "Is any afflicted? Let him pray; and let him in prayer pour out his complaint to God. The people of God do so here; they complain not of evils feared, but of evils felt." Matthew Henry.  And that touches something in me.  May I look at what is happening and then gaze at God's Pardoning Mercy, God's Sanctifying Grace, and God's Kind Hand of Providence.  We owe everything in our lives today to His Mercy.  Under the Mercy.  And we are attached to the Giver of Grace.  Under the Grace.  Identified with the Giver of All.   Restore us this day, O God.

PHOTO:  Rock Springs.  The no-filter view from my balcony as I stand in a rough patch and cry out to the Giver of Grace.