December 6, 2022

Scripture: Lamentations 3:24 – “I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

What it means

I just stumbled upon this passage of scripture from the prophet Jeremiah, and how rich this is! If we back up a few verses to 22-23, he tells us “Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness”…also very cool! We oftentimes worry about how much we need to get by in this world – how much is the bare minimum that we need to survive.  If everything else was taken away from us, we’d still be okay.  And the answer is in verse 24 – The Lord! He is our “portion” – in other words, all that we need to survive.  If we had everything else taken away from us, our portion would still carry the day and give us what we need.

What it means to me

As you know from his many outbursts in church, Sunday school, etc., our son Harrison has many trigger words that kind of set him off (sick, etc.).  One of those words is “wait”…probably because Jan is always having to slow me down and will inevitably holler out in an exasperated voice “Wait!” In other words “Don’t take off until you know what you need and how to accomplish what you need.”  I have a habit of taking off half-cocked in a quest to accomplish something before I have all the relevant information that I need, and Jan is fighting the good fight in trying to slow me down until I know all that I need to know in order to accomplish the task at hand.  Much in the same way, Jeremiah tells us that in order to receive our portion (The Lord), we need to wait on him.  It is painful for both Harrison and I, but good advice nonetheless.  So let’s rejoice today that we know what our portion in life is, and all we have to do is be patient (another trigger word for Harrison, unfortunately) and wait.  Pray for Jan – she has her hands full with both of us 😊

Love you guys, talk to you on Thursday!

In Christ,

Brian