My God and My Country

Word of God

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God

Matthew 4:4

The Book of Lamentations 3:40-41

40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord. 41 Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Brethren:

These are the two things which our afflictions should put us upon

First should be a serious consideration of ourselves and a reflection upon our past lives. Let us search and try our ways, search what they have been, and then try whether they have been right and good or no; search as for a malefactor in disguise, that flees and hides himself, and then try whether guilty or not guilty. Let conscience be employed both to search and to try, and let it have leave to deal faithfully, to accomplish a diligent search and to make an impartial trial. Let us try our ways, that by them we may try ourselves, for we are to judge of our state not by our faint wishes, but by our steps, not by one particular step, but by our ways, the ends we aim at, the rules we go by, and the agreeableness of the temper of our minds and the tenour of our lives to those ends and those rules. When we are in affliction it is seasonable to consider our ways (See Haggai1:5), that what is amiss may be repented of and amended for the future, and so we may answer the intention of the affliction. We are apt, in times of public calamity, to reflect upon other people’s ways, and lay blame upon them; whereas our business is to search and try our own ways. We have work enough to do at home; we must each of us say, "What have I done? What have I contributed to the public flames?’’ that we may each of us mend one, and then we should all be mended

Secondly, a sincere conversion to God: "Let us turn again to the Lord, to him who is turned against us and whom we have turned from; to him let us turn by repentance and reformation, as to our owner and ruler. We have been with him, and it has never been well with us since we forsook him; let us therefore now turn again to him.’’ This must accompany the former and be the fruit of it; therefore we must search and try our ways, that we may turn from the evil of them to God. This was the method David took. (See Psalm 119:59) , I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies. We must offer up ourselves to God, and our best affections and services, in the flames of devotion.

And so, when we are in affliction, we must look up to God as a God in the heavens, infinitely above us, and who has an incontestable dominion over us; for the heavens do rule, and are therefore not to be quarrelled with, but submitted to. We must pray to him, with a believing expectation to receive mercy (See 1 John 1:9) from him; for that is implied in our lifting up our hands to him which is a gesture commonly used in prayer and sometimes put for it, as (See Psalm 141:2): Let the lifting up of my hands be as the evening sacrifice; it signifies our requesting mercy from him and our readiness to receive that mercy. Our hearts must go along with our prayers. We must lift up our hearts with our hands, as we must pour out our souls with our words. it is the heart that God looks at in that and every other service; for what will a sacrifice without a heart avail? If inward impressions be not in some measure answerable to outward expressions, we do but mock God and deceive ourselves. Praying is lifting up the soul to God (See Psalm 25:1) as to our Father in heaven; and the soul that hopes to be with God in heaven for ever will thus, by frequent acts of devotion, be still learning the way thither and pressing forward in that way.