The Bible makes it clear that becoming a Christian won't spare you from failure or

from suffering. So what should we do when we find ourselves experiencing bleak

circumstances? Today on Truth For Life we'll look at how God's people found

hope when they were exiled in Babylon. Alistair Begg has an encouraging word

today for discouraged people.

A lamentation 3 verse 1, I am the man who has seen affliction under the

rod of his wrath. He has driven and brought me into darkness without any light.

Surely against me he turns his hand again and again the whole day long. He has

made my flesh and my skin waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged

and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation. He has made me dwell in

darkness like the dead of long ago. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape.

He has made my chains heavy. Though I call and cry for help he shuts out my

prayer. He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones. He has made my path

crooked. He is a bear lying in wait for me, a lion in hiding. He turned a

side my steps and tore me to pieces. He has made me desolate. He bent his bow

and set me as a target for his arrow. He drove into my kidneys the arrows of

his quiver. I have become the laughing stock of all people. The object of their

taunts all day long. He has filled me with bitterness. He has satid me with

wormwood. He has made my teeth grind on gravel and made me cower in ashes. My

soul is bereft of peace. I have forgotten what happiness is. So I say, my endurance

has perished so as my hope from the Lord. Remember my affliction and my

wanderings, the wormwood and the gall. My soul continually remembers it and is

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