Reality Check week 1, Lamentations Overview

Pain has a way of sobering us, doesn’t it? Life can be going smoothly and well and all of the sudden something happens—someone dies; you get that diagnosis; you bend over to pick something up and your back lets loose; or you break a bone or smash a finger. Pain has a way of bringing us back to reality—doesn’t it? How do you respond? This is true in our spiritual lives as well. Whenever we face pain, or suffering, or trials in our lives, it serves as a spiritual reality check. “What’s going on? What’s out of balance? What do I need to do to get through this spiritually?” But what we often times fail to realize is that God uses trials as a reality check in our lives. Trials are a way for God to do something in our lives. And as we come to the book of Lamentations this morning, we see that God gives His people their own reality check. God sends some hard times their way and they are faced with the choice—are they going to turn to God, repent, and follow him? Will they embrace God’s purpose in their suffering? Or will they turn away from Him and keep going their own way. It’s the same decision we have to make when God sends a reality check our way—how will you respond? From this episode in the book of Lamentations we learn some very important truths for our lives when it comes to suffering. We learn how God uses suffering to give us a reality check in our lives, and how God expects us to respond when he allows suffering in our lives for His purpose.‌‌ Suffering can be a reality check from God