Owning Our Part | Elephant in the Room – Week 4

The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The LORD regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was greatly troubled.
– Genesis 6:5-6

I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot.
– Hosea 2:12

But I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me. I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.
– Hosea 13:4-6

When a dear friend of Jesus named Lazarus dies, it says “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled….Jesus wept.
– John 11:33-35

The sentences we write after experiencing a wound determines whether or not God can use our pain or whether or not we just stay the same.

The relief from the pain can easily become the thing we seek more than God in the pain. 

1 Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath.
2 Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me.
3 Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin.
4 My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.
5 My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
6 I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning.
7 My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body.
8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
9 All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you.
10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes.
11 My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away.
– Psalm 38:1-11

The sentences we write after experiencing a wound determines whether or not God can use our pain or whether or not we just stay the same.

So, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.’…12 See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
– Hebrews 3:7-11, 13

Blessed is the one who always trembles before God, but whoever hardens their heart falls into trouble.
– Proverbs 28:14

The next sentence we write after the period of our pain is a direct reflection of the condition of our hearts.

You are not safer when you harden your heart – you are easier to break.

Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll—are they not in your record? Another version says, “You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle.You have recorded each one in your book.”
– Psalm 56:8

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray,for we are all your people.
Isaiah 64:8-9

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