Sorrow, Part Two

My heart breaks for this world, Lord. Though I do not love it like You, my heart mourns. Why do we mock You? How can we turn our back to You? Why are we allowed our idols? What do we hold onto?

You are a consuming fire, Lord – set us ablaze. We are not ready for You – but we need You desperately. God I yearn for Your presence with an anguished soul. My spirit cries out for Your righteousness.

I am weak. I am tired. I am hurt. I am confused. I am failing.

I thirst for Your presence. Thirst for Your holiness. Thirst for Your righteousness. Thirst for Your love. Thirst for You.

You have laid Yourself heavy upon me and my strength fails.

I want to know You. I want to know You like I am fully known. I want to see Your glory. I want to be where You are.

And I am afraid. Fear. Anxiety. Doubt.

Be my rescue.

But, save us also from ourselves.

Jeremiah 8:19-9:7 “My joy is gone; grief is upon me; my heart is sick within me. Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people from the length and breadth of the land: ‘Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King not in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and with their foreign idols? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.’ For the wound of the daughter of my people is my heart wounded; I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored? Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers' lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD. Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people?’”

Purify us, Lord. Make true Your promise to refine us like silver and make us bringers of righteousness. Pour out Your mercy until it overflows within us. We are nothing without You.

Prove Yourself, Lord. Let us testify to You, of You, by You.

We want to open the door. We hear You knock. We long to commune with You.

Fill our hearts. Have mercy on us. We are Yours.