I've been thinking about parenting some recently, having seen many good and bad examples, and having experienced God's parenting in my own life.  I have learned/realized some things recently, although it's a bit hard still to pin it down and put it into words.  I'll try to note a few things below.  Sorry it's so rambling.  Maybe these thoughts will coalesce into a more succinct form in the future.

1. First, consider these verses, from our friends Job and Paul  (consider also the story of Jonah, and the plant that God 'gave' and then 'took away')...

 He said,
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked I shall return there
The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD."     (Job 1:21)

Notice this about God - that He gives and He takes away.  He doesn't only give (like 'Santa Claus'), and He doesn't only take away (like we are sometimes tempted to believe, when grieving a great loss).  He does both.   Why?  Is God an "indian-giver"?   Is He capricious, feeling benevolent one day but feeling grumpy the next?

How is it possible to trust Someone who gives good gifts one moment, then painful heartaches the next moment?  How can one repose one's heart in Him, release one's future to Him, if you never know what painful thing He's going to throw at you next?  When the dentist says "this might hurt a bit, but just close your eyes and try to relax", how do you respond internally?  Is this what God tells us to do (Proverbs 3:5-6), or is the analogy incorrect?

The second passage:

"Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who 'made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.' In the generations gone by He permitted all the nations to go their own ways; and yet He did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good and gave you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness."  (Acts 14:15-17)

What is it about receiving things like food and rain for one's crops that points one to God?  What is Paul saying here?

2. I think it's C.S. Lewis who talks about why God does this ---  God "gives AND takes away" in order to awaken in people the desire for Him..... the Object of desire which is the only truly satisfying one (see also this interesting related article on 'sehnsucht', a German word approximately meaning "longing"/"desire").  More on this below.

3. The concept of parenting seems to be related to this.  Parenting seems to be two main things: living an example to one's kids, and teaching/training specific principles to one's kids.  Training seems to be accomplished using rewards and punishments... rewards for good behavior, punishments for bad behavior.  The idea is that if you train children consistently using rewards and punishments, they will build character habits... at first they won't understand the rationale (they'll just know 'when I beat up my brother, I get spanked, which hurts, so I'd better not beat up my brother any more'), but as they mature, they'll understand the rationale ('it is better for many reasons to live in an amicable relationship with my brother').   Once the kids get to the teen age, spanking doesn't hold much terror for them any more, and once they hit their late teens and older, all punishments lose effect... so the training has to take place early.... but if it works, the kids won't need the rewards/punishments any more... they will WANT to act in these mature ways (for better/higher motivations)...

Anyway, the parent must both give, and take away.   Sometimes I see a parent trying to only take away, without giving... e.g. taking away their privileges, yelling at them (usually the ones who yell are the same ones who don't spank), threatening them, grounding them, etc.  Sometimes I see a parent trying to only give, without taking away...  e.g. sacrificially providing opportunities (educational, social, financial, etc) without being willing to take away those privileges if the kid is behaving badly... parents giving money to a kid who is married, jobless, homeless, etc and enabling his continued unruly lifestyle, etc.

But it is beautiful to see a parent both giving and taking away, toward the goal of seeing his/her child become an upright and mature adult.   The parent gives gifts of toys, social opportunities, educational opportunities, field trips, delicious foods, money, etc, constantly pondering what new gifts he/she might be able to give.... while being ready to take away, withold, punish, spank, scold, etc whenever the child needs it.  In engineering terms the parent is keeping open a wide dynamic range of parental reference signal to the child.

4.  As I currently understand it, this process looks different depending on whether the person is being drawn by God or not (or whether the person is seeking God or not through God's Spirit working in their heart, or whether the person is one of God's elect 'sheep' or not... different ways of saying the same thing).

If the person is being drawn by God, when God gives a good gift to them, he/she respond in delight and thanksgiving --- 'wow, thanks God!! I never knew life could be this good... my perspective on the upper end of the realm of possibility has just been expanded... if being-with-You-in-heaven is better than THIS, then it must be far better than thought previously...'  Then when God takes away that good thing, or brings some hardship into his/her life, they respond like Job - 'ok God, for some reason in your better/wiser plan You have taken this away for some good purpose... thank You that what I possess in having/knowing/being-connected-with You Yourself is far better than anything I have lost or could ever possibly lose here on earth... thank You for the reminder, in this loss, that my true Treasure is not this thing, but You... ' (Lamentations 3:24, 1 Cor 7:29-31, John 17:1-5, etc)

But the non-elect person responds differently... when God sends the good gift, it only dulls the spiritual sensibilities and cases the person to be more entrenched against God, if He comes to mind at all ("ok God, here's one thing I'm never going to let you take away from me"), and when God sends the pain or takes away the gift, it only causes rage and bitterness against God.  Again C.S.Lewis' story is powerful -- of the dwarves in "The Last Battle" who, although seated in a beautiful meadow and presented with a delicious banquet, are unable to see/enjoy it for what it is and end up less satisfied than before.   Cf. Revelation 9:20-21, 16:9,11...

5.  www.beerisproof.org says these things more coherently than I.   From their website: "Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Quoting Lewis again: "Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."

6. Someone, probably Lewis again, has compared the "far-better"-ness of life-with-God to the scenario of trying to explain the pleasures of sex to a little child.  "Is it better than eating chocolate or playing with Legos?" the child asks incredulously.  How could something possibly be better than Legos? or chocolate??

Or consider a boy playing on his Xbox.  He is so engrossed by the game that he barely hears his mom say that she and his dad and the rest of his family are now waiting in the car to begin their family vacation at the beach.   "That's nice," he mumbles, eyes fixed on the screen.  His mom suddenly reaches over and abruptly switches off the power.  At first the boy is upset.  But as soon as he reaches the beach, he begins to become secretly grateful that he was forced to leave his game.   Why?

There are categories of joy that apparently we cannot even begin to grasp... and the same applies to what God is doing in His parenting of us...   He gives us delightful gifts, to shock us into realizing that there is a far greater joy awaiting us than we had imagined existed.  He then takes takes away those gifts and pours heartache into our lives, to shock us into remembering that this world is not our home and we ought not to pretend like it is.  He then repeats the cycle.

Blessing and heartache, blessing and heartache, "happiness and tears", bigger and bigger every month, wrenching our hearts out of joint, overflowing us with blessing beyond our capacity even to say 'thank you', grinding us under pains so great we can't even begin to explain them to our friends, every year upping the amplitude of life's circumstances and timing the phase just right to shatter our complacent little lives...       WHY?        As I asked above, "is God an "indian-giver"?   Is He capricious, feeling benevolent one day but feeling grumpy the next?"     Or, does He have an awesome purpose... is He parenting us with deliberate care to grow in us huge anticipation/delight/longing...     for the only 'thing' that can ultimately satisfy us... that is, Himself........

 

 However, as it is written:
"No eye has seen,
no ear has heard,
no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him."     I Corinthians 2:9

 

 

This is an interesting quote:  (a courtship letter to a father, taken from this powerful sermon)

"I have now to ask, whether you can consent to part with your daughter early next spring, to see her no more in this world; whether you can consent to her departure, and her subjection to the hardships and sufferings of missionary life; whether you can consent to her exposure to the dangers of the ocean, to the fatal influence of the southern climate of India; to every kind of want and distress; to degradation, insult, persecution, and perhaps a violent death. Can you consent to all this, for the sake of him who left His heavenly home, and died for her and for you; for the sake of perishing, immortal souls; for the sake of Zion, and the glory of God? Can you consent to all this, in hope of soon meeting your daughter in the world of glory, with the crown of righteous, brightened with the acclamations of praise which shall redound to her Savior from heathens saved, through her means, from eternal woe and despair?"

How rare, it seems, are women (and men) like this... who are completely surrendered to God and willing to give up everything to follow Christ...  who are ready to die, to lose their money, their health, their safety, their friends, their reputation, their fun-filled-life, their children, etc etc, for Christ's sake.

"Look," says the Teacher, "this is what I have discovered:
"Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things-
"While I was still searching but not finding-
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
"This only have I found:
God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes."
-- Solomon, Ecclesiastes 7:27-29

"So then, none of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions."
-- Jesus Christ, Luke 14:33

 

Challenging to me...

God, please help me to "give up all my own possessions" and put You absolutely first in my life...

 

 

"I went one day to Mrs. G----'s, just after she had lost all her fortune.  I could not be surprised to find her in tears; but she said, 'I suppose you think I am crying for my loss, but that is not the case: I am only weeping to think I should feel so much uneasiness on that account.'  After that, I never heard her speak again upon the subject as long as she lived. 

"Now this is just as it should be.  Suppose a man was going to York to take possession of a large estate, and his chaise should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him if we saw him wringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, 'My chaise is broken! My chaise is broken!'"   -- John Newton, "Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton", p. 297

 

For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. -- 2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.

 

^"What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"                                  Romans 8:31-32

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

"He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.

"If anyone serves Me, he must follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also; if anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him.

--  Jesus Christ   (John 12:24-26)

Thank You, God!!!

(...for many things, especially the salvation You purchased for me, and especially one answer to prayer which I can't describe publically just yet)

Really Big Things:

1. No matter how many counselors are urging you to do something, no matter how strongly they are urging you, no matter how unusual the combination of viewpoints converging to offer the same advice, no matter how trusted the counselors are, if you do not feel inner peace from God about going ahead with the choice (especially a choice like marriage), do not proceed.  Keep waiting and praying until you have peace from God about going forward.  You will save yourself a lot of heartache.   I know everybody talks about the other side: if you think you have God's blessing but all your counselors are urging caution, then don't proceed.  I don't know about that.  Counsel can be helpful.  But the leading of God's Spirit, in a heart walking closely with Him, is more important than any human counselor and is worth following even when all human counsel contradicts.
2. Don't hold on tightly to anything in life except God.  Hold everything except Him loosely.  If you don't, you will sooner or later be devastated when it dies or withers or breaks or is stolen away from you.  Fortunately I was privileged to learn this in the positive sense - if you are holding on to God more tightly than everything else, you will never be completely devastated.  You may sorrow, but never "as those who have no hope".  You may weep, but only "as if you were not weeping".
3. God is "worth" giving up everything else for.  Put another way, if you lose everything precious in life other than God, everything other than God that makes life fun and enjoyable and beautiful, or if not even everything, if you lose that one person here on earth who is your "sunshine", that one who is more important to you than any other human, such that you are left empty, devastated, reeling, depressed, etc, but you come to realize that you still 'have' God (in that you are an adopted child of God through faith in Jesus Christ and are thus a recipient of His rock-solid eternal promise "I will never leave you nor forsake you"), then it is enough - what you still have (albeit maybe in the age to come) is SO valuable as to render any comparison with what you have lost ('precious' though it is) impossible.   You can say with Jeremiah, "The Lord is my portion, says my soul, therefore I have hope in Him."   Just Him, just God alone, is enough.

Smaller but still important things:

1. A little bit of criticism can go a long way to ruin a relationship.   There are times and places where rebuke is necessary.  But double check, triple check before airing it, to make sure it is God who is telling you to send the criticism, not your own egotistical heart.
2. Face to face conversation is usually better than phone or email.
3. "...speaking the truth in love..."  is an essential phrase to meditate upon and apply.  It is important to be absolutely honest, absolutely truthful....  and also to not share more than would be helpful and loving at the time, to the right people, etc.  Both are equally important.  If you end up being so honest that the girl is shocked and repulsed, so be it.  Better to be honest before marriage and have a big heartbreak than to be sugary and/or to hide the problem areas and experience a far bigger heartbreak later.
4. Never criticize anyone behind their back.  This is not necessarily a "romantic relationship" issue, it's a basic human relationship issue (Matthew 18).  If you have a problem with someone and God confirms that it is not just your overreaction but is truly sin in their life, then DON'T talk to anyone else about the problem, instead go talk to that person one-on-one.
5. It's a good idea to get to know the person's family really really well.
6. Don't worry.  About anything.  Including the outcome of the relationship situation.  Philippians 4:1-8.  This only applies to those who belong to Jesus Christ.  Unbelievers should worry.   But God is powerful enough to redeem any and all situations that His children find themselves in.
7. Pray.  Pray more.  Keep praying.  Pray harder.  Pray with fasting.  Pray without ceasing.  Pray until God answers.
8. Some girls want to be absolutely sure that you love them.  They so distrust your stated motives that they are willing to turn you down just to see if you keep pursuing, and if they sense the slightest hesitation, they will break off the romantic relationship.  If God so leads, keep pursuing the girl with everything you have.... you may end up winning her heart.  (But only if God so leads).  It may be that what she's really interested in is friendship (i.e. do you like spending time with her doing everyday stuff, just hanging out, etc), not romantic tokens (flowers, gifts, dates).   HOWEVER, the concept of 'different love languages' is very real, and not all girls will fit this model described above.  You may find out the hard way that everyone else's advice (and even sometimes her own explanation) about what that girl is looking for / what is her love language, is completely wrong.  In your situation, you might start from my advice and think 'all she wants is friendship', but in your particular case, she might want a gift from you, or an arm around the shoulders, or more romantic involvement, or more spiritual leadership, or whatever.  If God so leads, modify your approach and keep trying.  But don't do it if you don't have peace from God about it.
9. There is no way for a man to avoid risking getting his heart broken.   If he tries the "gradually deepen friendships with all girls until one friendship naturally goes deeper and deeper, then slide that one into romance" approach, he will risk letting his heart get enticed by affection for many women, not just the one he will eventually marry.  If he tries the "be friends, but not deep friends, with lots of girls, then after observing and becoming attracted to one in particular, abruptly move into an official 'lets consider marriage' dating relationship" approach, he takes the risk that the girl will not be attracted to him and will be scared away by his directness.   If he takes the "cautious, see if she's interested in me before I'll show interest in her" approach, the only girls he will attract will be the ones who have lowered their standards to a man who won't take the spiritual and romantic initiative, which is a roundabout way of saying, 'not the type of girl you want to have'.   Bottom line: if God wants to break a man's heart (or woman's heart), it's easy.  There's no way for the man to avoid it.  Yet, with all that said about God, it is still true (I think) that "He does not willingly afflict the sons of men..."  Lamenations 3 / Hebrews 12...  Every agony He allows is deliberate and loving (at least, for His own children...).
10. Not all romantic-heartbreak / lonely-singlehood is a direct result of sin, just as not all of Job's ills were a direct result of his sin and as the men on whom the tower of Siloam fell were not "worse sinners" than all the rest.  Likewise, not all of romantic blessing is a direct result of righteousness.  Some is of course the consequence of righteous or sinful decisions.  But some is due to circumstances, which are completely out of one's control (and completely in God's control).   God blesses and disciplines and gives and takes away by His own sovereign gracious will, not in a karmic fashion.
11. Extreme sorrow is normal, upon losing something extremely valuable such as a child or a spouse or a relationship heading toward marriage with a godly woman.  Sometimes when you experience such depths of sorrow and try to share it with Christian friends, the vast majority of people will tell you you're overreacting, you're being sinfully depressed, you're not rejoicing in God enough, you're being controlled by your feelings, etc.  The tendency upon receiving such feedback is to almost go insane with the feeling that one can no longer be open with anyone.  Fortunately, there are a few other human souls out there who have been through similar very deep waters and can offer knowledgable encouragement.  And God is a very compassionate listener.  "Jesus wept."
    As far as I can tell, extreme sorrow at earthly loss is NOT mutually exclusive of simultaneous rejoicing in the Lord (although, see 1 Corinthians 7:29ff, and below).   There will be those Christians who tell you that you ought to be happy all the time and that if you show grief you are sinning, but they simply do not understand.  They may never have experienced the same pain and brokenness you are experiencing, or they may have forgotten it, or they may have been taught that one ought to 'keep a stiff upper lip' and 'pretend all is fine all the time' on the surface in front of other people.   So we must forgive them when they give advice that only wounds further.  They do not know what they are doing.  The first example I had that earthly sorrow and hope in God can coexist was when talking with a godly older mentor whose son had just committed suicide.  Through his tears he said that he still believed in God, but he was hurting.   Over the years I began to notice that Paul talks about the same thing (2 Cor 1:8, 6:10, Romans 12:15), as does Jesus (Luke 6:21, John 12:27, Mark 14:33) and others (1 Peter 1:6).  Earthly rejoicing (i.e. being happy because of some earthly positive circumstance) and earthly sorrow (i.e. being sad because of some earthly loss or pain) are placed on exactly the same level (Romans 12:15, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31), that is, real, worthy of sympathy from others, yet on a deeper level not quite as real as what is coming next (the Eternal Life).  Sorrow as those who have hope in Christ.  Rejoice as those whose main joy is not here, but is in Christ.  Anyway, I'm rambling a bit, but the gist of this point is that when people tell you you're too sad or too depressed, ignore them.  God's opinion of you is the only opinion that matters.  Keep right on focusing on heaven, sorrowing/rejoicing in earthly things in a secondary way, and rejoicing in Christ.
12. Avoidance of all sensual/sexual/physical contact is helpful and very worthwhile.  Unbelievers and other Christians (and possibly even the girl herself) will misunderstand, but the resultant freedom and the knowledge of God's pleasure are worth it.

 

(April 20, 2009, updated June 18, 2009)

I am not skilled to understand

What God has willed, what God has planned

I only know at God's right hand

Stands One who is my Savior.......
..................
Genesis 22:1-18

 ¹Now it came about after these things, that God tested [literally, "sniffed"] Abraham, and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

 ²He said, "Take now your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."

 ³So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son; and he split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

 ⁴On the third day Abraham raised his eyes and saw the place from a distance.

 ⁵Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey, and I and the lad will go over there; and we will worship and return to you."

 ⁶Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son, and he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So the two of them walked on together.

 ⁷Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, "My father!" And he said, "Here I am, my son." And he said, "Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

 ⁸Abraham said, "God will provide for Himself the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." So the two of them walked on together.

 ⁹Then they came to the place of which God had told him; and Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood, and bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

 ¹⁰Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

 ¹¹But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, "Abraham, Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

 ¹²He said, "Do not stretch out your hand against the lad, and do nothing to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me."

 ¹³Then Abraham raised his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him a ram caught in the thicket by his horns; and Abraham went and took the ram and offered him up for a burnt offering in the place of his son.

 ¹⁴Abraham called the name of that place The Lord Will Provide, as it is said to this day, "In the mount of the Lord it will be provided."

 ¹⁵Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven,

 ¹⁶and said, "By Myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son,

 ¹⁷indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

 ¹⁸"In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

 ...................

 

Why three days?   Why his "only son"?

That's a long time to be walking down the road, wondering why God would ask for his most precious possession... whether he had understood God correctly...  whether or not it would be worth it to obey...

 

.....................

 

Lamentations 3:25-33

   ²⁵The Lord is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
²⁶It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the Lord.
²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
²⁸Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.
³⁰Let him give his cheek to the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.
³¹For the Lord will not reject forever,
³²For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
³³For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.
Matthew 19:29

"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life."

James 5:11

We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord's dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful....

 

...rejoicing in Christ my awesome Redeemer, with teeth gritted against the current pain... until the time comes when it will be all rejoicing all the time with no more pain (1 Peter 1, Revelation 20-22)...

"Expulsive replacement - rejoicing in Jesus in the face of your particular idols"...

Yeah!  All... day... long...

    ¹I am the man who has seen affliction
Because of the rod of His wrath.
²He has driven me and made me walk
In darkness and not in light.
³Surely against me He has turned His hand
Repeatedly all the day.
⁴He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away,
He has broken my bones.
⁵He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
⁶In dark places He has made me dwell,
Like those who have long been dead.
⁷He has walled me in so that I cannot go out;
He has made my chain heavy.
⁸Even when I cry out and call for help,
He shuts out my prayer.
⁹He has blocked my ways with hewn stone;
He has made my paths crooked.
¹⁰He is to me like a bear lying in wait,
Like a lion in secret places.
¹¹He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces;
He has made me desolate.
¹²He bent His bow
And set me as a target for the arrow.
¹³He made the arrows of His quiver
To enter into my inward parts.
¹⁴I have become a laughingstock to all my people,
Their mocking song all the day.
¹⁵He has filled me with bitterness,
He has made me drunk with wormwood.
¹⁶He has broken my teeth with gravel;
He has made me cower in the dust.
¹⁷My soul has been rejected from peace;
I have forgotten happiness.
¹⁸So I say, "My strength has perished,
And so has my hope from the LORD."
¹⁹Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness.
²⁰Surely my soul remembers
And is bowed down within me.
²¹This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
²²The LORD'S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
²³They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
    ²⁴"The LORD is my portion," says my soul,
"Therefore I have hope in Him."
²⁵The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,
To the person who seeks Him.
²⁶It is good that he waits silently
For the salvation of the LORD.
²⁷It is good for a man that he should bear
The yoke in his youth.
²⁸Let him sit alone and be silent
Since He has laid it on him.
²⁹Let him put his mouth in the dust,
Perhaps there is hope.
³⁰Let him give his cheek to the smiter,
Let him be filled with reproach.
³¹For the Lord will not reject forever,
³²For if He causes grief,
Then He will have compassion
According to His abundant lovingkindness.
³³For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.
³⁴To crush under His feet
All the prisoners of the land,
³⁵To deprive a man of justice
In the presence of the Most High,
³⁶To defraud a man in his lawsuit--
Of these things the Lord does not approve.
³⁷Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass,
Unless the Lord has commanded it?
³⁸Is it not from the mouth of the Most High
That both good and ill go forth?
³⁹Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint in view of his sins?
⁴⁰Let us examine and probe our ways,
And let us return to the LORD.
⁴¹We lift up our heart and hands
Toward God in heaven;
⁴²We have transgressed and rebelled,
You have not pardoned.
⁴³You have covered Yourself with anger
And pursued us;
You have slain and have not spared.
⁴⁴You have covered Yourself with a cloud
So that no prayer can pass through.
⁴⁵You have made us mere offscouring and refuse
In the midst of the peoples.
⁴⁶All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
⁴⁷Panic and pitfall have befallen us,
Devastation and destruction;
⁴⁸My eyes run down with streams of water
Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
⁴⁹My eyes pour down unceasingly,
Without stopping,
⁵⁰Until the LORD looks down
And sees from heaven.
⁵¹My eyes bring pain to my soul
Because of all the daughters of my city.
⁵²My enemies without cause
Hunted me down like a bird;
⁵³They have silenced me in the pit
And have placed a stone on me.
⁵⁴Waters flowed over my head;
I said, "I am cut off!"
⁵⁵I called on Your name, O LORD,
Out of the lowest pit.
⁵⁶You have heard my voice,
"Do not hide Your ear from my prayer for relief,
From my cry for help."
⁵⁷You drew near when I called on You;
You said, "Do not fear!"
⁵⁸O Lord, You have pleaded my soul's cause;
You have redeemed my life.
⁵⁹O LORD, You have seen my oppression;
Judge my case.
⁶⁰You have seen all their vengeance,
All their schemes against me.
⁶¹You have heard their reproach, O LORD,
All their schemes against me.
⁶²The lips of my assailants and their whispering
Are against me all day long.
⁶³Look on their sitting and their rising;
I am their mocking song.
⁶⁴You will recompense them, O LORD,
According to the work of their hands.
⁶⁵You will give them hardness of heart,
Your curse will be on them.
⁶⁶You will pursue them in anger and destroy them
From under the heavens of the LORD!

(Lamentations 3)