Who Can Heal Us?

WHO CAN HEAL US?

a prayer to open

In the midst of the pain in the world, Lord, I cry out to you.

When darkness overwhelms and the light has faded,

lead me in the way of hope, and grant me eyes to see your goodness.

I have cried until the tears no longer come;

my heart is broken.

My spirit is poured out in agony

as I see the desperate plight of my people.

Little children and tiny babies

are fainting and dying in the streets.

They cry out to their mothers,

“We need food and drink!”

Their lives ebb away in the streets

like the life of a warrior wounded in battle.

They gasp for life

as they collapse in their mothers’ arms.

What can I say about you?

Who has ever seen such sorrow?

O daughter of Jerusalem,

to what can I compare your anguish?

O virgin daughter of Zion,

how can I comfort you?

For your wound is as deep as the sea.

Who can heal you?

Your prophets have said

so many foolish things, false to the core.

They did not save you from exile

by pointing out your sins.

Instead, they painted false pictures,

filling you with false hope. . . .

All your enemies mock you.

They scoff and snarl and say,

“We have destroyed her at last!

We have long waited for this day,

and it is finally here!”

But it is the LORD who did just as he planned.

He has fulfilled the promises of disaster

he made long ago.

He has destroyed Jerusalem without mercy.

He has caused her enemies to gloat over her

and has given them power over her.

Cry aloud before the Lord,

O walls of beautiful Jerusalem!

Let your tears flow like a river

day and night.

Give yourselves no rest;

give your eyes no relief.

Rise during the night and cry out.

Pour out your hearts like water to the Lord.

Lift up your hands to him in prayer. . . .

“O LORD, think about this!

Should you treat your own people this way?

Should mothers eat their own children,

those they once bounced on their knees?

Should priests and prophets be killed

within the Lord’s Temple?

See them lying in the streets . . .

killed by the swords of the enemy.

You have killed them in your anger,

slaughtering them without mercy.

You have invited terrors from all around. . . .

In the day of the LORD’s anger,

no one has escaped or survived.

The enemy has killed all the children

whom I carried and raised.”

Jeremiah, the author of Lamentations, wept for the torment his people experienced. But he also suffered along with them. He didn’t cry out to God from afar; he got close and identified personally with their pain and suffering. As followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit within us and can be ambassadors of Christ’s presence and comfort. But do we get close enough?

• As you read today’s lament, who came to mind? Is there a group of people near you who suffer from a particular kind of pain? If you feel the Holy Spirit leading you to do so, spend time making Jeremiah’s lament on behalf of the people you thought of. Pray the words as your own.
• As you consider more closely the suffering of those who came to mind for you as you read, how might you get close enough to be an ambassador of Christ?
• How is God calling you to participate in what he’s doing to restore and redeem the suffering of the people you have identified?

God, we are crying out to you with broken hearts and anguished souls. We see the suffering all around us: starving children, dying parents, endless oppression. Save us! Come, Lord Jesus.