Cry Out in the Night!

Lamentations 2:14  Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Lamentations 2:19  Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

In these mournful cries of Jeremiah, I hear a voice that echoes through time, from 588 BC to AD 2015.  The same cry of Jeremiah can be heard today as Satan attempts to defeat God's children.  Too many self-proclaimed prophets, preachers, and teachers have, as in verse 14, "proclaimed vain and foolish things."  Rather than calling people to repentance, they have created easy explanations and pacifying prescriptions.  They have lulled God's people to sleep with their smooth and soothing sermons. 

Jeremiah said that when sin was acknowledged, captivity could be broken.  The foolish vanity of recent decades has caused our children to be held captive by Satan and his lies.  They don't even recognize sin as sin.  The absolute truth of God's Word has been swept into a corner to make room for more palatable explanations for our problems.

Listen to Jeremiah's cry in verse 19!  Arise!  Cry out in the night!  Early in the morning pour out your heart like water before the Lord! Lift up your hands to Him for the life of your young children!  They are fainting with hunger in every street!

And they truly are today!  So many are starving, and they don't even realize it.  Broken homes and selfish relationships leave them longing for real and lasting love, but they have no idea where to look or how to find it.  Secular teaching sends them seeking for self-fulfillment in financial success.  People in nearly every town we visit tell us of their community's growing drug addiction problems. 

The situation is grave, but we can't throw up our hands and give up; we must lift up our hands toward God for the life of our young children!  We must make reaching our children with the truth of the Gospel a priority.  Christian leaders must call for repentance as in verse 14. 

Proclaim the truth!
Pray fervently!
Practice His principles so our children can see proof that they work and have a pattern to follow!

If we don't heed the call from history, the spiral will continue and we will repeat history as God's judgment falls.  We want more than a little remnant left that truly know God.  We want to leave behind a mighty army of devoted soldiers that will continue to love God and stand firm against Satan and his strategies of deception!