Our scriptural text today comes from the book of Lamentations, chapter 3, verse 1 through 12,

and then verse 16 through 18. Notice there these words, I'm the man who has seen trouble,

trouble coming from the lash of God's anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch black

darkness. Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. He turned me

into a skeleton of skin and bones and then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on

the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness like a corpse nailed inside a coffin.

He shuts me in so I'll never get out, handcuffs my wrists, shackles my feet.

Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key.

He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered.

He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce.

He locked me from the path, knocked me from the path, and ripped me to pieces.

When he finished, there was nothing left of me.

He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. He ground my

face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten

what the good life is like. I said to myself, this is it. I'm finished.

God is a lost cause.

I'm speaking today simply from the subject,

from overwhelmed to an overcomer.

From overwhelmed to an overcomer.

This, you thought you had a bad day.

You may have thought you had a bad week, but the prophet Jeremiah here is not personally speaking of himself,

but he's speaking of a man actually representative of the nation of Israel.

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