Return, Write, and Wail

Return,O Faithless Sons
Continuing with yesterdays thoughts, my prayer is to see us and our children cleansed from all unrighteousness, to see us depart from our former faithless ways, and return to the God of our salvation. God has called out, "Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.""Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the LORD our God. Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. "But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God." Jer 3:22-25
May we see God call our sons up and use them like He did Jeremiah and say, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth." But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you you shall go, and whatever I command you you shall speak. Be not afraid of them ,for I am with you to deliver you, says the LORD." Then the LORD put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me,"Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant." Jer 1:5-10 God can use our youth. Encourage them to use all their giftings, energy, and time for God's work and not to despise their youth.

Write the Vision Down That You May Run With It In Faithfulness
As parents and youth, we need to wait upon our Heavenly Father, to stand and watch. We need to pray and then listen to what He has to say. Listen to how he answered Habukuk in chapter 2 verses 2-4, And the LORD answered me:"Write the vision; make it plain upon tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its time; it hastens to the end - it will not lie. If it seem slow, wait for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Behold, he whose soul is not upright in him shall fail, but the righteous shall live by his faith.
Let's obey the principles found in God's Word. Let's teach them to our children. As God's people, we must read the Bible, pray and be still, and then listen for His voice and meditate upon His words. How good it is to recount all God's mighty deeds and to realize His sovereignty. It is crucial that we read the true stories of others who lived by faith and those who lived by their flesh and to see the outcome, to see how merciful yet just our Holy God is. It increases our faith as we meditate upon His Word and are discipled by it. Just as the prophets and apostles walked and talked with God, so can we, for He has written His words down that we may run with it. I pray that we will live by faith, that we will be found faithful through Christ who has made a way. We have to keep this vision ever before us, may we also write down what God is speaking to us and apply it to our lives practically and spiritually. In order to do this, we have to redeem the time and not shrink back, for the days are evil, full of distractions and superficial busyness. We need to say no to the things that don't line up to the vision God has given us and stay busy with the Lord's work. Let's be about our Father's business, so that our minds will not wander, for we are so prone to do evil. I am reminded of the old hymn, Come Thou Fount. My prayer is the same as in that song, Take my heart, Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. When I think of the word faithful, I think of being true to something or obedient on a consistent basis. If we are living by faith in God we will have that fruit in our life. When I think of the word believe, I see the words- to live by. If we believe in Jesus, we will be striving to live by and in obedience to His Word. But this faith, this belief is a gift from above, they are gifts that we cannot boast of as from ourselves. Although, we can boast of that gift that God has given us- that we know the Lord, Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." Jer 9:23-24
Do you know and understand the Lord? Do you realize who He is or do you take Him lightly? Hear the words of the prophets, read what has been written to give us understanding.

Join Me Sisters In Wailing For The Men
I believe we as wives and mothers need to listen carefully to what is written down in Jer 9:12-26. Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? And the LORD says: "Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Ba'als, as their fathers taught them. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them." Thus says the LORD of hosts: "Consider, and call for the mourning women to come; send for the skillful women to come; let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush with water. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How we are ruined! We are utterly shamed, because we have left the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.'" Hear, O women, the word of the LORD, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; teach to your daughters a lament, and each to her neighbor a dirge. For death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares. Speak, "Thus says the LORD: 'The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.'" Thus says the LORD: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practice steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the LORD." "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised but yet uncircumcised - Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert that cut the corners of their hair; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."
As women, God has called us to lift the men up in prayers of weeping. We should be calling out to God to give the men an understanding of how wicked the people in our land have become and how judgment is coming if we all do not repent. Let's pray that God would give the men boldness to declare the Word of the Lord to a stubborn and rebellious people! We need to cry and raise a wailing over our men. With tears flowing from our eyes, we are to teach our daughters to do the same. Oh, may we cry out for our husbands, brothers, fathers, and sons- that they would understand and know the Lord and declare His Words to our people. Maybe you don't feel like crying because everything seems so good, happy, and pleasant. But, sisters, open your eyes, wake up, mourn for the dead, they are all around you- the spiritually dead. They have been taken captive by those that hate Christ. They have been taken away from the Lord by perversion, debt, pornography, personal peace and affluence, love of riches, addictions, and idolatry. Cry out for those who have never known the Lord or who may have once but have been drawn away by their own lust, served their flesh, and have made their passions and the things of this world their gods and have devoted their time, energy, and souls to them. Weep for all the children that are murdered every day through abortion, that are being medicated, vaccinated, or mistreated by our medical system which has resulted in horrible side effects, poor immune systems, autism, or even death. Fall on your knees for all the children that are emotionally, physically, or sexually abused, who are not protected but instead neglected and not being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Cry out for the generation that is being sacrificed to the gods of feminism, riches, and freedom and stuck in public schools that are raising and training them during most of the hours in their day, by people or at least a system and curriculum that has removed God, the Bible, and prayer from its midst and is teaching what is contrary to His standards- Acceptance of Homosexuality, Fornication (Safe Sex), and Humanism, to name a few. Oh, wake up, look at the state of our nation. Get angry at sin and those who hate God and His children. Let's repent of our sins, pray for our husbands, and men who God has called to be leaders in our country.Read God's Word, and be filled with His Spirit daily. May God bring us closer to Him and increase our faith and obedience to Him. Be diligent to train your children in God's Word and lay down your life in service to your family and to the people of God. Don't lose sight of our primary purpose which is the answer to the first catechism question. Man's primary purpose is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. I hope that purpose stirs you up today to love and good works from a joyful heart, full of hope, to glorify God. The joy of the Lord is our strength even in the midst of trials, dirty diapers, sick children, working through multiplication tables with your kids, frozen pipes leaving you with no water to do dishes, submitting to your husbands requests when you feel tired or can't seem to see it the way he does, or in your prayer time as you are wailing for our God-ordained leaders and for the hurting or wickedness in the land. Be strengthened to pick up your Bible, read it for yourself, cry out and pray, listen, meditate on God's words, and write it down that you may run with it!