Scripture – Lamentations 3:25 – The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.  Prayer Focus: Beth Tanner’s commentary on this text points out to us that the Hebrew word for hope is the same word as the one meaning “to wait.”  She says, “We tend to think of “hope” and…

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Scripture – Lamentations 3:24 – “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”  Prayer Focus: Where we place our hope has implications for how we live our lives.  We treat our neighbors, our planet, and ourselves differently if we hope in the Lord than if we place our hope in the financial…

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Scripture – Lamentations 3:22-23 – 22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; 23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  Prayer Focus: We fail all the time; the Israelites did too.  Over and over again, they did not keep up their end of the covenant they made with…

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Scripture – Lamentations 3:21 – But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:  Prayer Focus: I hope that as we read verse 21 this week, we hear it as a loud, defiant declaration.  So far in the book of Lamentations, we read word after word about the destruction of Jerusalem and the loss and violence…

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Scripture – Lamentations 3:20 – My soul continually thinks of it and is bowed down within me.  Prayer Focus:  In Hebrew, the word for “soul” here literally means the “life” of the person.  This verse means that the writer’s whole life is occupied with sorrow and bowed down from the weight of it all.  When something is not right,…

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Scripture – Lamentations 3:19 – The thought of my affliction and my homelessness is wormwood and gall!  Prayer Focus: The book of Lamentations is a writing of great loss.  It captures, in words, the sorrow of the loss of the temple and most of Jerusalem during the Babylonian destruction in 587 BCE.  The Message translation of this text says,…

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Scripture – Jeremiah 32:15 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.” Prayer Focus: The text that began with the king’s confusion over Jeremiah’s proclamation of destruction and exile ends with a promise of hope. The field Jeremiah bought…

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Scripture – Jeremiah 32:11-14 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase containing the terms and conditions and the open copy, 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed…

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Scripture – Jeremiah 32:9-10 9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out the silver to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the silver on scales. Prayer Focus: Jeremiah buys the field. He pays for it with seventeen shekels…

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Scripture – Jeremiah 32:6-8 6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ ” 8 Then my cousin Hanamel came to me…

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