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This week’s FMF writing prompt is: CONSUME

In my post last week, I mentioned a podcast interview I recorded with my friend, Katie M. Reid, for her podcast, the Martha + Mary Show.

In our conversation, Katie asked me to share a few Scripture passages that are comforting to me in the midst of grief.

One that came to mind was Lamentations 3:22-23:

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (NIV).

I’ve often found comfort from this passage, thinking that by God’s grace and because of His love and mercy, I will not be consumed by the grief or my trials or heartaches.

But then this past Sunday, our pastor was preaching from Exodus 33 and we read:

The LORD said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’ I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; but I will not go up among you, lest I consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.”

When the people heard this disastrous word, they mourned, and no one put on his ornaments. For the LORD had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a stiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would consume you.'” 

Suddenly the passage from Lamentations took on a deeper meaning:

It’s true that the Lord will not allow me to be consumed by my heartache at any given time, but because of His love for His people, He will also guard His children and protect us from His own wrath. And the ultimate example of that is what He did through His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross.

Because God the Father sacrificed His only Son on behalf of all who would trust in Him, those who believe will never be consumed.

As Isaiah 43:2 says,

But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
    he who formed you, O Israel:
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you.

Hallelujah.

STOP.

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Join this week’s link-up on the prompt, CONSUME, with your own five-minute freewrite below, then visit your link-up neighbor to read their post and leave an encouraging comment: