19 People of Jerusalem, you don’t need to cry anymore. The Lord is kind, and as soon as he hears your cries for help, he will come.
as soon as... Am I asking for help? Do I really want his help, or do I want to dictate what I want?
20 The Lord has given you trouble and sorrow as your food and drink. But now you will again see the Lord, your teacher, and he will guide you.
Do I need trouble and sorrow before I look to the Lord?
21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, you will hear a voice saying, “This is the road! Now follow it.”
I WILL HEAR. Not maybe, but WILL.
22 Then you will treat your idols of silver and gold like garbage; you will throw them away like filthy rags.
Definitely need to get rid of my idols. They have a sneaky way of creeping back in.
23 The Lord will send rain to water the seeds you have planted—your fields will produce more crops than you need, and your cattle will graze in open pastures.
Make sure I'm planting seeds for him to water. Seeds of kindness, mercy, forgiveness, generosity. Seeds in my children that he can water and grow in them.
24 Even the oxen and donkeys that plow your fields will be fed the finest grain.
Better go get ox and donkeys...
25 On that day people will be slaughtered and towers destroyed, but streams of water will flow from high hills and towering mountains.
Hopefully I won't be one of the "slaughtered"
26 Then the Lord will bandage his people’s injuries and heal the wounds he has caused.
I don't like this, because it goes against everything "christianity light" teaches, but this very definitely says that the Lord CAUSES some of our wounds. (But then he bandages them, which is pretty sweet.)
26 cont The moon will shine as bright as the sun, and the sun will shine seven times brighter than usual. It will be like the light of seven days all at once.
I don't know about you all, but I could use the light of seven days all at once. Figuratively, of course. My sunglasses aren't quite up to that UV standard.
In my NCV version it says "the Lord will hear your crying and he will comfort you". I experienced need today, not my own, but others. Real need. And it's so sad. First time was at lunch at the library. A homeless man was standing by the entrance door, right next to the ash tray. The lady in front of me was far enough ahead that I saw her put her half smoked cigarette in the top of the ash tray/trash can. The man lifted the lid and pulled the half smoked cigarette out, put it in his mouth, smiled at me when I went by and said "Hello, ma'am" as kind as you please. I went in with tears in my eyes. I don't even know how to help that. Second time was at home. I was working from home this afternoon and a man came to my front door to ask if the two bikes leaning against the tree in my backyard were being used or could he have them. His words "I've been laid off for a while now, and I'm salvaging everything I can. So he took the bikes, and he will be coming back for the old aluminum bunk beds that belonged to my girls, Nate's old basketball goal that will have to be cut down for him to remove, my old dryer and old refrigerator that Steve will have to bring out of the back of the house for him. He also told me he repairs riding lawn mowers and other stuff, and he'll beat anybody's price. I wish I could do more for him.
I want to go back to verse 26 again. I feel like I've been wounded (not like these two guys). But I also feel like maybe it was a wound that the Lord caused. I was talking with Steve the other day and I asked him "what if this - that hurts so bad right now - is actually a blessing and we just can't see that it is?" He agreed that quite possibly it is, and we'll see that someday (or we won't) but we do know that he will heal the wounds that he has caused. As the Great Healer, as THE ONE that cures blindness, leprosy, and brings dead people back to life, I'm pretty confident in his healing abilities.
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