Do Regular Spiritual Check-ups
BRD REFLECTIONS
Lamentations 4 and Psalm 60 (NIV)
(Tina Khoo, Pastoral Team Member, Membership & Volunteer Care)
READ:
OBSERVE:
Lamentations 4 contrasts the situation before the siege of Jerusalem with the situation after the siege. The sights and sounds of prosperity were gone because of the people’s sin.
vv12-16 – No one would have thought that Jerusalem would fall. After all the glorious things God did for the Jews, like the parting of the Red Sea, the miracles in the wilderness, the miraculous conquest of Joshua and David, and other great things that God had done for the Jews, we expected God to deliver His people once more. Yet, because of their sins, God withdrew His divine protection and left them vulnerable and subsequently conquered by the superpower of the day. Two of these sins were: the priests had allowed innocents to be put to death and the people had not respected the holy priests and godly wisdom of the elders.
vv21-22 – Jeremiah then turns his attention to the Edomites. Unlike the Jews who will be restored, the Edomites will be utterly destroyed. Their sins will be exposed and punished. Edom rejoiced to see the Jews suffer; they delighted in seeing the calamity of others but never thought that calamity would come to them. But God is making it clear that no one is exempt from divine punishment for sin.
APPLY:
To heed the warning not to assume that when life is going well, it will always stay that way. We must be careful not to glory in our prosperity or we will fall into spiritual poverty.
DO:
1. Just as I go for medical check-ups regularly, I will do regular spiritual check-ups. One of the effective ways to do regular spiritual check-ups is by practising daily Examen. Once a year, I will schedule a time for a personal retreat, where I can have an extended time of silence and solitude. During this time, I place my heart under the Holy Spirit’s scrutiny and with His help align my heart back to God again.
2. When I discover that my heart has gone astray, I will remember Psalm 60:4-5 (ESV):
You have set up a banner for those who fear you, that they may flee to it from the bow. That your beloved ones may be delivered, give salvation by your right hand and answer us!
For only God and God alone can enable me to flee from this persistent tendency to exchange His glory for my own self-glorification. Remember that it is not about me trying harder to be Christlike but it is really me trusting harder that He who had begun the good work in me will be the One who will bring it to completion.
3. Not to resist God’s discipline but go through discipline with a repentant heart and hope that God’s discipline is God’s purpose of forming me into the person I’m meant to be, a beloved child of God, created for His glory.
PRAY:
Father God, You are the vine and I am the branches. Help me to abide in You always. In good times and bad times, draw me close to You and remind me that all things will pass away but You and You alone are eternal. Use me as Your instrument so that all glory and praise be unto You. Amen.
