For Reading and Meditation:      Lamentations 3:19-27Now we come to the turning point of the seventy-third psalm - the point where the psalmist takes the first step toward the resolution of his problem. We must not forget that the purpose of this psalm is to show us how the writer solved his problem, so that when we get into the same kind of difficulty we can apply the same solutions. Here, then, is his first step: "If I had said, 'I will speak thus,' I would have betrayed your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was oppressive to me" (Psalm 73:15-16). We see in these words what it was that arrested his feelings of doubt and despair - the thought that if he were to speak out of his discouraged heart he would put a stumbling block in someone else's path. "If I did that," he thinks to himself, "I would be untrue to the generation of God's children. So, rather than discourage others with my doubts, I will not say anything at all." Some might regard it as strange that the first step the psalmist took on the road to recovery should be one with such a low motivation. Indeed, there are those who have said it was unworthy of him and that he should not have allowed himself to get into that condition. Similarly, when people in the Church today confess to having "unspiritual" feelings, I am sure you have heard judgmental advice-givers address them with words like: "You ought not to feel like that!" But the point is that they do feel like that, and reality demands that we begin right where they are and not where we would like them to be. Personally, I do not care how low a person's stand might be as long as he or she is standing and not slipping.Gracious and loving Father, teach me how to handle myself in a crisis and help me not to be too proud to begin at the lowest level. Better to have my feet on the lowest rung of the ladder than to be struggling in the mire. Amen.<div class="tl-lightgrey mt20 pt20 flexbox-row-wrap jc-around"><div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">AdditionalVerses</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Hebrews 4:1-16</li><li>Matthew 9:36</li><li>Mark 1:41</li><li>Luke 7:13</li></ul></div>

<div><div class="fs-17 fg-mustard bold center-it">Questions to Consider</div><ul style="margin-top:0px"><li>Why can we come boldly to the Lord with our feelings?</li><li>What will we obtain?</li></ul></div></div>

Let a little light into your soul every day with this wonderful devotional from English pastor Selwyn Hughes.

Every Day Light with Selwyn Hughes

" my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope." (vv. 20-21) 

HOW poor is the worldling's possession, if compared with the Christian's portion; it is but for a few days; it cannot satisfy, it cannot bless. But, beloved, Jehovah hath given up Himself; He say, "I AM YOUR INHERITANCE." We are ever with Him, and all He has is ours. His power is ours to support us, His wisdom to guide us, His love to comfort us, His mercy to relieve us, His goodness to supply us, His justice to defend us, His covenant to secure us, and His heaven to receive us. He is a suitable, sufficient, and immutable portion. We are to live upon Him, draw from Him, rejoice in Him, and look to Him for all we need. For Him we renounce all other; to His glory all our efforts must be directed, and with Him we must daily walk. Men cannot deprive us of our portion, fire cannot consume it, nor rust corrupt it; let us not therefore be much affected by any thing that occurs below: if the streams are dried, the fountain remains; if creatures fail or deceive us, our God is the portion of our inheritance and of our cup; He maintains our lot, He is our strength, and OUR PORTION FOR EVER.Begone, ye gilded vanities, I seek the only GOOD; To real bliss my wishes rise, The FAVOUR OF MY GOD: Thy love, my God, my portion be, And let me find my all in Thee

Written by James Smith for his own flock around 1840, but such was the demand that by 1846 over thirty thousand copies where in circulation.

The Believer's Daily Remembrancer

"The Lord is my portion." Lamentations 3:24

It is not "The Lord is partly my portion," nor "The Lord is in my portion"; but he himself makes up the sum total of my soul's inheritance. Within the circumference of that circle lies all that we possess or desire. The Lord is my portion. Not his grace merely, nor his love, nor his covenant, but Jehovah himself. He has chosen us for his portion, and we have chosen him for ours. It is true that the Lord must first choose our inheritance for us, or else we shall never choose it for ourselves; but if we are really called according to the purpose of electing love, we can sing- "Lov'd of my God for him again With love intense I burn; Chosen of him ere time began, I choose him in return." The Lord is our all-sufficient portion. God fills himself; and if God is all-sufficient in himself, he must be all- sufficient for us. It is not easy to satisfy man's desires. When he dreams that he is satisfied, anon he wakes to the perception that there is somewhat yet beyond, and straightway the horse-leech in his heart cries, "Give, give." But all that we can wish for is to be found in our divine portion, so that we ask, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee." Well may we "delight ourselves in the Lord" who makes us to drink of the river of his pleasures. Our faith stretches her wings and mounts like an eagle into the heaven of divine love as to her proper dwelling-place. "The lines have fallen to us in pleasant places; yea, we have a goodly heritage. " Let us rejoice in the Lord always; let us show to the world that we are a happy and a blessed people, and thus induce them to exclaim, "We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. "

This timeless classic from Charles Spurgeon will help to both start and end your day with wonderful insight into God's Word.

Charles Spurgeon's Morning & Evening

"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." - Lamentations 3:24

Morning Devotional

Poor man, says the world. But no, says the believer; he is to be pitied who boasts of any other portion than this. If the Lord be not thy portion, will any portion that thou hast continue? Let it be power like that of Napoleon, wisdom like that of Socrates; fame like that of Bacon, imagination like that of Scott, wealth like that of the Bourbons; let it be beauty, or valor, or wit, or industry; let it be troops of friends, or one most loving heart; let it be what it may, it is a contemptible portion, if it be thine all. He that becomes a follower of Christ, declares that the Lord is his portion. He counts all but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of him. And not only does his soul say it; his life, his daily life, must say it; must testify that he has forsaken all for Christ. How singular that, after all the glimpses of his boundless wealth, and power, and majesty, granted by Christ to the sons of men when on the earth, he should find so few willing to take up with him for a portion. It was the merest trifle for him to spread a table for five thousand men, besides women and children; with but a word he loaded several boats full of large fishes; he raised the dead; all power in heaven and in earth was manifestly his. We see plainly that all other portions must at last revert to him, and he will give them to whom he will. But independently of all material gifts, there is that in his character which makes him, him alone, able to satisfy the soul throughout eternity.

A daily devotional written by a Baptist Missionary to India, Reverend George Bowen (1816-1888) over 150 years ago.

Bowen's Daily Meditations

"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul." ― Lamentations 3:24. 

Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. § O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good inheritance. “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I hope in Him!” Your testimonies I have taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart. O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water… Because You have been my help, therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My beloved is mine, and I am his.

Daily Light on the Daily Path or Daily Light is a Christian daily devotional scripture reading published by Bagster & Sons about 1875. It has been reprinted continually since then. It consists of brief groupings of scripture passages which speak to prominent Biblical themes—two themes (morning and evening) for each day of the year. It appends no commentary, but simply allows scripture to speak for itself.

Evening Daily Light

 I am your portion and your inheritance. 

24 <poetry>I say to myself, “The <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> is my portion; <indent>therefore I will wait for him.”</indent><poetry></poetry>

I say to myself, “The <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> is my portion;<cr>1</cr> <indent>therefore I will wait for him.”</indent><pb/><poetry>

Lamentations 3:24

 24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;   therefore I will wait for him.” 

From Wikipedia: 

The New International Version (NIV) is an English translation of the Bible first published in 1978 by Biblica (formerly the International Bible Society). The NIV was published to meet the need for a modern translation done by Bible scholars using the earliest, highest quality manuscripts available. Of equal importance was that the Bible be expressed in broadly understood modern English.

The NIV is published by Zondervan in the United States and Hodder & Stoughton in the UK. The NIV was updated in 1984 and 2011 and has become one of the most popular and best-selling modern translations.

OT: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia; additional sources;
NT: UBS Greek New Testament; Novum Testamentum Graece; additional sources;

New International Version

 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” 

<poetry>I say to myself, “The <smallCap>Lord</smallCap> is my portion; <indent>therefore I will wait for him.”</indent><poetry></poetry>

 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;   therefore I will wait for him.” 

Bible Verse of the Day

January 3, 1888

Lamentations 3:24 NIV

Verse by Verse Bible Study

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