"Remember my affliction and my straying, as wormwood and bitterness. Remembering, my soul remembers and bows down on me. I return this to my heart; therefore I hope. It is by the kindnesses of Jehovah that we are not consumed, for His mercies are not ended. They are new by mornings; great is Your faithfulness." – Lamentations 3:19-23 (KJ3)
The Restoration of What We've Broken
This week's theme holds together three seemingly different struggles that share a common thread: when our souls are bowed down, but hope still breathes.
We examined Peter's terrible mistake—denying Christ three times in His darkest hour. We watched the paralyzed man at Bethesda, stuck for 38 years, waiting for healing that never came. And we explored how gratitude and grief can coexist in the same heart, refusing to stay separate.
What connects them? The pattern of restoration. Christ doesn't erase our failures—He redeems them. He doesn't remove the grief—He walks through it with us. And He doesn't heal us before we move—He heals us as we move in faith.
Light for Your Path
Devotional #39
The Frustration of Waiting for the Wrong Thing
Scripture Focus: John 5:1-9 (The paralyzed man at Bethesda)
What have you been waiting for so long that you've stopped believing it will ever happen?
For 38 years, a paralyzed man lay by the pool of Bethesda—which in Aramaic means "house of mercy"—waiting for healing that never came. An angel would stir the water at certain times, and the first person in after the stirring would be healed. But this man never got his moment. He watched others get what he needed. Always too slow. Always stuck while someone else went ahead.
Three Movements:
1. When Waiting Becomes Suffering
Chronic frustration makes us blind to God. We stop looking for Him. We build a case for why we're stuck and stop believing He can do what no one else has done. When Jesus asks, "Do you desire to become well?" the man doesn't say yes—he rehearses his problem. "While I am coming, another goes down before me."
2. The Blindness Frustration Causes
He's focused on the pool. The obstacle. Who didn't help him. He doesn't see the solution standing right in front of him—Jesus, who can heal without the pool, without anyone's help, without the water stirring. How many times has God offered us a way forward while we've been too busy explaining why we can't move?
3. Healing Requires Faith in Action
Jesus doesn't wait for the man to say yes. He commands: "Rise up. Take up your pallet and walk." Not "I'll heal you, then you can get up." The man acts, and in the acting, discovers he's been healed. The movement God is waiting for isn't out there—it's in you.
The Pattern Repeats
The man waited for the water to be "agitated." In Hebrew, it's the same word used when Hannah's lips "moved" in prayer. Hannah was barren, desperate, praying silently—and God heard the movement of her lips and gave her Samuel. For 38 years, the man waited for the pool to move. God was waiting for him to move.
The Challenge: What step has Jesus told you to take that you've been refusing because you don't feel ready? Maybe God is waiting for you to obey before He changes your circumstances. You don't need the water to be agitated. You just need to move.
Two prophetic folk songs setting all 66 verses of Lamentations 3 to music—from affliction through hope to vindication
Song 1: Affliction to Hope
Lamentations 3:1-36 (KJ3) – From Despair to Morning Mercies
🎵 Slow waltz • Minimal acoustic guitar • Synagogue choir • 1970s folk • Analog recording
📖 Read Complete Lyrics (All 36 verses) ▼
Complete Lyrics: Lamentations 3:1-36 (KJ3)
I, the man, have seen affliction by the rod of His wrath.
He led me and made me go in darkness and not light.
Surely He turned against me; He turns His hand all the day.
He has wasted my flesh and my skin. He has shattered my bones.
He built against me and has put around me bitterness and hardship.
He has made me live in dark places like the dead of old.
He walled around me and I cannot go out; He has made heavy my bronze chain.
Also, when I cry out and shout for help, He shuts out my prayer.
He walled up my ways with cut stone; my paths are crooked.
He was a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in secret places.
He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces; He made me desolate.
He has trod His bow and set me up as a mark for the arrow.
He caused the sons of His quiver to enter into my kidneys.
I was a mockery to all my people, their song all the day.
He has filled me with bitterness and made me drunk with wormwood.
And He broke my teeth with gravel; He has covered me in the ashes.
And You cast off my soul from peace; I have forgotten goodness.
And I said, My strength and my hope have perished from Jehovah.
★ THE PIVOT (vv. 19-26):
Remember my affliction and my straying, as wormwood and bitterness.
Remembering, my soul remembers and bows down on me.
I return this to my heart; therefore I hope.
It is by the kindnesses of Jehovah that we are not consumed, for His mercies are not ended.
They are new by mornings; great is Your faithfulness.
Jehovah is my portion, says my soul, therefore I shall hope to Him.
Jehovah is good to those waiting on Him, to the soul seeking Him.
It is good that he hopes for the salvation of Jehovah, even in silence.
Bearing the Yoke (vv. 27-33):
It is good for a man that he bear a yoke in his youth.
He sits alone and is silent, for He laid it on him.
He puts his mouth in the dust, if perhaps there is hope.
He gives his cheek to the One smiting him; he is filled with reproach.
For the Lord will not cast off forever.
For if He causes grief, He will have pity according to His many kindnesses.
For He does not afflict from His heart, and grieves the sons of man.
God's Sovereignty (vv. 34-36):
To crush all the prisoners of earth under His feet,
to turn aside the judgment of a man before the face of the Most High,
to subvert a man in his cause—this, the Lord does not see.
Musical Journey: Transforms from desolate lament to dawning hope at "I return this to my heart." Thematically parallels Peter's bitter weeping moving toward the paralyzed man's moment of hope.
Song 2: The Cry and Vindication
Lamentations 3:37-66 (KJ3) – From Confession to Divine Justice
🎵 Slow waltz • Acoustic guitar • Strings • Melancholic • 1970s folk • Analog recording
📖 Read Complete Lyrics (All 30 verses) ▼
Complete Lyrics: Lamentations 3:37-66 (KJ3)
Prophetic Wisdom (vv. 37-39):
Who is this who speaks, and it occurs, though the Lord does not command it?
Both the evil and the good do not go out from the mouth of the Most High.
What? Should mankind complain, living man, because of his sins?
Corporate Confession (vv. 40-54):
Let us search and examine our ways, and turn back to Jehovah.
Let us lift up our heart and palms to God in Heaven.
We have transgressed and rebelled; You, You have not forgiven.
You have wrapped Yourself with anger and pursued us; You have slain; You have not pitied.
You have covered Yourself with a cloud, from any prayer passing through.
You have set us as sweepings and garbage in the midst of the peoples.
All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.
Dread and a pit is ours, devastation and ruin.
Streams of water go down from my eye for the ruin of the daughter of my people.
My eye flows out and does not cease, from there not being any ceasing,
until Jehovah shall look down and see from Heaven.
My tear thrusts down to my soul, from all the daughters of my city.
Hunting the hunter has hunted me without cause like a bird.
They have cut off my life in the pit, and they threw a stone at me.
Waters flowed over on my head; I said, I am cut off.
★ THE CRY AND VINDICATION (vv. 55-66):
I called on Your name, O Jehovah, from the lowest pit.
You have heard my voice; do not hide Your ear at my relief, at my cry for help.
You came near in the day I called You; You said, Do not fear!
O Lord, You contended for the causes of my soul; You redeemed my life.
You have seen my subversion, O Jehovah; judge my cause.
You have seen all their vengeance, all their plots against me.
You have heard their reproach, O Jehovah, all their plots against me.
The lips of those rising up against me, and their scheming against me all the day.
Look at their sitting and their rising up. I am their song.
You will give back a recompense to them, O Jehovah, according to the work of their hands.
You will give them a covering up of heart as Your curse to them.
Pursue and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of Jehovah.
Musical Journey: Moves from prophetic meditation through broken confession to righteous plea for justice. Thematically parallels Christ's restoration of Peter by the sea—vindication after failure.
Sunday Study
Study #14
When You've Made Terrible Mistakes
Series: Practical Biblical Help for Real Problems
Scripture Focus: Luke 22:54–62 (Peter's three denials) and John 21:15–17 (Jesus' three questions)
"And the Lord turning looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how He said to him, Before the cock crows, you will deny Me three times. And Peter went out and wept bitterly."
– Luke 22:61-62 (KJ3)
Key Observations:
Sin begins with distance – "Peter followed afar off" – far enough to feel safe, close enough to look faithful
Failure deepens through small compromises – each denial builds on the last
The gaze of Christ precedes repentance – Jesus says nothing, just looks (Greek: emblepō – to gaze intently, to see into)
Godly sorrow leads to restoration – Peter wept pikrōs (with piercing grief) because he loved the One he denied
Grace mirrors sin to heal it completely – Three denials redeemed by three questions: "Simon, do you love Me?"
The Two Fires
Both conversations happen beside a fire. The courtyard fire where Peter fell (John 18:18). The seaside fire where Jesus restores (John 21:9). Christ meets us in the same place we failed—not to condemn, but to rebuild. The charcoal fire of breakfast became the altar of restoration.
The Pattern: Failure is never final when grace is real. Jesus saw Peter's denial before it happened—and still prayed for him. The same Lord who looked at Peter with compassion still looks at us today, asking not "What did you do?" but "Do you love Me?"
The Pattern of Grace: How Jesus Restores What We Break
A visual teaching tool showing how Jesus redeemed Peter's three denials with three questions of love. This interactive resource reveals the symmetrical pattern of Christ's restoration.
The Courtyard Fire "I do not know Him" (3x)
The Lord's Gaze Bitter weeping
The Seaside Fire "Do you love Me?" (3x)
Both conversations happen beside a fire. Christ meets us in the same place we failed—not to condemn, but to rebuild. Grace mirrors sin to heal it completely.
Sometimes it feels impossible to be grateful when you're really hurting. But as we discovered this week, it's not only possible—it's necessary. Gratitude doesn't erase grief; it prevents grief from turning into bitterness.
"For His anger is only a moment; in His favor is life. Weeping may endure in the evening, but a ringing cry of joy comes in the morning."
– Psalm 30:5 (KJ3)
Voices from the Seminar:
Lindy on holding both:
"I hold gratitude for what God is building, and grief for what breaks. I'm grateful for the unity we're discovering, for the vision taking shape. But I carry grief—for the loss of our son, for discord that divides families, for anxiety that steals peace. Acknowledging what's broken doesn't diminish hope. It deepens our longing for healing."
Charlie on turning to the Lord in grief:
"When grief comes, we do turn to the Lord. And I believe He will bring that gratitude, because we want to rely more on Him for answers. We may not get the answers—look what Job went through—but as time goes on, if we turn to Him, we start to see the gratitude, which is Him, which is the light."
Mark on the journey:
"Gratitude for my faith has been multiplied to a level I've never known. But the grief comes from the collateral damage—leaving everything I knew 3,000 miles away, realizing it was a lie. The gratitude and grief go hand in hand in real time. Without this ministry, I don't know how this would've played out. I'm excited to see where it's going—even in grief, there's excitement for more hope."
Al on caregiving as blessing:
"I keep praying, 'Lord, let me do nothing to break that trust.' God trusts me with these people—elderly, suffering. I know it sounds funny to count taking someone to the bathroom as a blessing, but I do. I'm so grateful. It's been a long week, but I'm thankful God has trust in me with these lives."
What We Learned Together
Grief and gratitude can coexist because they're both forms of love. You can't grieve what you didn't cherish. You can't be grateful without remembering what's been given—and sometimes, what's been taken. The key is keeping both before the Lord, letting Him use our losses to deepen our dependence and our gratitude to guard against bitterness.
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Until then, may you find the courage to move when Jesus says "Rise," the grace to hold both grief and gratitude, and the hope that comes new every morning.
"They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." – Lamentations 3:23 (KJ3)