Lord's Day Devotion - Rested and Replenished Souls

 It was morning and the lady was fresh up, oh, maybe about an hour or so fresh up, from a night of sleep.  It reminded her of Jeremiah's good night's rest and God's promise to Him.

"For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.  At  this I awoke and looked and my sleep was pleasant to me" (Jeremiah 31:25-26 ESV).

What a great promise, actually there are two promises mentioned here.  Souls to be satisified and replenished; remarkable.  Jeremiah had this almost instantly, it seems.  He found it pleasant.

No doubt when God gives His loved ones rest and sleep, they are blessed (see Psalm 127:2).  Jeremiah had been doing a lot of lamenting.  He must have been rather tuckered out by it all.  He must have been weary and languishing in his soul.  He got the sleep he needed though and he found it pleasant.

Take this scenario...the lush green ambiance of the rural setting was refreshing and calming.  Yet all was not well on the set. The lady had been doing triage for the Traditional Chinese Medicine man (TCM).  One of the triage questions was to ask how many children each mother had had.  Many of the mothers who came had had anywhere from 5-10 children or more, the average being in the higher range.  Along came a sister, who was no longer so young and who had been listening to all that accounting, and the lady asked her, "How many children have you had?"  Sorrowfully and ashamedly, head hanging down, softly replied, "One."  The lady could see this sister was sad, her soul languishing.  Oh the anguish of her soul.

The lady herself had had her own sister's husband suddenly leave this world to be with Christ.  That is good for him, but those of us left behind, are grieving.   

No doubt in our times of grief and other emotional uprisings, or even in our day-to-day dealings and disappointments, our souls can become weary and languished.    

And the lady, still sitting at triage, asked Jesus where He was in all this.  "Jesus, please reveal Yourself, where are You in this time.  Please help me to perceive you," she invited.

She wanted input.  She wanted to thank the Lord that they could hide themselves in Him and find shelter and rest, not just from their fears, cares and sorrows but also from their exhaustion (see Psalm 32:7-10).

It was then that she saw Jesus sitting across from her at that picnic-like table.  He was shining with bright light.  He exuded care and compassion.  He addressed the grief of loss to both the sister whose loss was lack of more children and the lady's grieving of her sister's loss. Much of this grief was silent; not many others perceived it.  It had been kept in the heart and soul.  But Jesus came.  He said, "I know grief.  I'll be Your hiding place and comforter.  Tell me all about it.  I'm in the comforting business whether it is a small or great loss."

Know this, Jesus is our hiding place and comfort zone.  No one understands our troubles and grief like He does, so the lady who was half a world away from her sister and who felt so bereft and sorrowful that she couldn't comfort her sister in a literal hands-on sense, felt some consolation.

Jesus reminded the lady, "Remember the parents who lost their 12 year old daughter?  They suffered the untold grief of losing a child.  I stepped in saying, 'Damsel arise'.  Do you see the untold measure of rest and replenishing to the parents' souls this brought (see Mark 5:21-24)?

"What's more," Jesus continued, "the siblings Mary and Martha who grieved the loss of their brother Lazarus.  I went to the grave commanding, 'Lazarus, come forth'.  Can you see the solace they had!"

"How about the widow of Nain?  She lost her only son to death.  She was bereft in more than one way.  I halted the funeral.  Who does that?" He asked the lady.  "I told the one in the coffin, 'Young man, I say to you, arise...'  And he did."

"Fear seized the people but oh, how the mother's heart must have found rest and replenishing, hope renewed even in her astonishemnt (see Luke 7:11-17)," Jesus reminded the lady.

Jesus showed the lady something else, "See I can comfort BIG time.  I can comfort you, your sister who is so far away and the sister sitting next to me at this table.  You can't speak her language but you can connect with your eyes, reach out and hold her hand.  I can speak to her heart in her own language.  It's ok."

"Hide in me," He said, "She can hide in me.  All the loss and lack, come tell me, I know about silent grief.  I know about grief that's been unabled to share with  other human beings.  No-one understands quiet like I do. "

"In the Garden of Gethsemane, in those last hours before My arrest, it was My talk and grief, just with my Father and Myself.  The disciples were too sleepy.  They couldn't grasp it all.  My Father  was my hiding place.  I am yours."

The lady's tears flowed then and she told Him about her sister and her loss again, asking, "Comfort her too, Lord.  Surround her with Your loving presence.  I can't reach out and hug her but You can.  Thank-You Jesus, I appreciate You for Your omnipresence which allows it.  Amen."

"Jesus, because of Your great love that sent You to the cross, we give You our thanks and praise as we partake of the bread and drink of the cup of wine on any given Lord's Day.  Without this sacrifice, Your death and resurrection, we would not realize that You are the Resurrection and the Life.  Our weary souls would not be able to find rest.  Our languishing souls would not be replenished and our great losses of life could not be comforted.  You would not be our hiding place where we could find Your understanding presence.  Thank You for Your promises.  Hold our hands, be ever with us.  Thank You for being with us, being our Solace, Rest, our Replenisher and making our sleep pleasant.

                                                          ~ERC  May 2024`

Based on Jeremiah 31:25-26 (ESV); Psalm 32:7-10 and IA Session #7.

Sing, You Are My Hiding Place, along with SELAH.