Hillsong United is a worship band from Sydney, Australia. I've been reading through a devotion on my YouVersion App called Hillsong Worship, No other name - the Overflow devotion. I've had a rough month of feeling God's presence in my life. People, situations, and circumstances have cluttered my mind and filled my inner soul with too much stress and confusion and I've been unable to feel the Lord. I love worship and decided to do this devotion to help me feel closer to the Lord.
I sat at dinner with a friend last night and pretty much dumped everything in her lap - what I've been going through, things said to me, hurts and fears. I felt so bad that I did that, but I've held it all in - tried to deal with it on my own. I was "lamenting" to her. The book of Lamentations was written by Jeremiah, who was "lamenting" the destruction of Jerusalem. The book is partly a traditional "city lament" mourning the desertion of the city by its god, its destruction, and the ultimate return of the divinity, and partly a funeral dirge in which the bereaved bewails and addresses the dead. The tone is bleak: God does not speak, the degree of suffering is presented as undeserved, and expectations of future
This morning I read Lamentations 3:22-23 "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". I have felt like God isn't speaking to me. The first 6 months of this year I was writing with a fury - I was on fire and God was speaking and moving in my life. I pulled up my blog and realized I haven't written in over a month. I knew I was feeling distant and lonely, dried up and depleted. Why? What has happened that caused me to feel so bleak? I try to read my Bible and write, but my thoughts are scattered and all over the place. I can't concentrate, I can't focus. I have been lamenting my drive, my fire, my purpose - feeling like it has left me. I have become like Jeremiah, mourning the loss of my closeness with God as he mourned the loss of Jerusalem. But, in God's word, I am given new hope- in the book of Lamentations no less. Because of God's great love for me, I am not consumed. His compassion for ME never fails. GREAT is HIS Faithfulness!
God hasn't moved from me, just as He didn't leave Jeremiah. He is quiet, yes. Sometimes He is quiet to bring movement on our part. What do I need to do to create change in my relationship with the Lord? I keep asking Him to speak to me, but I haven't really genuinely spoken to Him. I've been Lamenting, when He's been there all along. Hillsong United and many other worship songs have been the bridge between me and the Lord lately. I have flooded myself with worship to feel close to Him. Today I know He is with me, full of compassion for my dried up soul and withered spirit. His mercies are new every day - I just need to be open to receiving them.
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