Why should any living mortal, or any man,
Offer complaint in view of his sins? (Lamentations 3:39).

Jeremiah declares that there is no basis for a person to complain in light of that person's sins against God. In other words, whatever hardship comes, it is deserved. If there is a reprieve from suffering, a time of bliss, it is not because it was deserved but because God chose to be gracious. 

Friends, this is how we should view the experiences of our lives. Let us, rather, have the attitude of Paul, who wrote regarding his own sufferings:

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

Friends, are there any of you suffering hardship? Learn to trust in God, for suffering, no matter how bad, is only for a moment. Paul, who suffered all kinds of beatings, stonings, cursings, and abuse, wrote this:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (2 Corinthians 4;16-18).

He calls being left for dead after a brutal stoning in the city of Lystra a "light and momentary trouble". He calls being whipped to near death a light and momentary trouble. He calls suffering hunger, imprisonment, and persecution by those who were formerly friends "light and momentary troubles". 

Friends, compared to this, what have you suffered? It is not godliness in the midst of blissful ease that is commenable before God, but godliness in the midst of intense suffering. As Peter wrote,

For it is commendable if someone bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because they are conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps (1 Peter 2:19-21).

This is where Prosperity Theology gets it wrong. They seem to think that God is most glorified when Christians are enjoying the benefits of prosperity because of ther trust in God. No, this is not the testimony of Scripture, especially in the New Covenant. God is most glorified when Christans trust God apart from any earthly benefits. Why? It demonstrates that God is of greater worth to them than anything that the world has to offer. And nothing the world can throw at them, neither hardship nor any suffering, can shake them from their all-surpassing hope in Christ. That is why the Psalmist writes,

Precious in the sight of the Lord
    is the death of his faithful servants (Psalm 116:15).

Therefore, friends, rejoice in your hardship and embrace your suffering in this life, knowing that an immeasurable weight and eternal hope of glory is just around the corner. But do good and stay unmoved from your trust in the Lord. Say, as Paul wrote, "For me to live is Christ and to die is more (Christ)" (Philippians 1:21), knowing that in life you knew Christ by faith and in death you will see Him face to face.

Just as the joy over the birth of a child erases the memory of pain in delivery, so our redemption in glory will erase the memory of any and every suffering we experience in this life. 

 Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? (Lamentations 3:37, 38 NIV)

I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things. (Isaiah 45:7 NIV)

Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble? (Job 2:10 NIV)

When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble? When disaster comes to a city, has not the Lord caused it? (Amos 3:6 NIV)

These verses all speak of the sovereignty of God over every natural process, whether the actions of men or of nature, whether it comes as blessing or calamity. He is the Author and Master of all these things. Therefore, it is true when people say that God caused Katrina to hit New Orleans or the tsunami to hit Indonesia or the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan. Now, it is presumptuous to assert that the reason for these calamities is the wickedness of the people in the regions hit, for while the Scriptures support God's initiation and control over such events, it does not tell us that people will understand the reason God causes them. After all, even righteous Job did not understand why God allowed Satan to afflict him as He did. Rather than assert reasons, it is sufficient to acknowledge God's sovereign power and personally humble ourselves with a spirit of repentance, for it is only by God's grace that we remain alive:

Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish." (Luke 13:1, 2, 4, 5 NIV)

Jesus debunked the idea that calamities come upon certain people because they were worse sinners than others. While the people were surprised at those who died, Jesus revealed that their surprise was misplaced. Rather than being surprised that some others died horrible deaths, they should be surprised that they themselves are still alive. These people had a too high view of themselves. The reality was that they were all sinners and deserving of judgment. As Paul would write, 

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).

Except for God's grace, even the gift of salvation, people would have no hope. So he also writes,

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works so that no one may boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Friends, our sovereign God brings every blessing and every calamity known and experienced in this life, and we will not often understand the reasons for them; however, we do know that God always acts for His glory. And it is for His glory also that He has given such marvelous promises to us, such that we can receive eternal life by believing in His Son Jesus Christ. 

For God loved us in this way, that He gave His One and Only Son, so that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).

Terrifying description of what happened to Israel was recorded when their sin reached up to the throne of God. Some of the things that happened are beyond our comprehension. I realized how much God hates sin! I sin everyday whether it seems small or big, and it is a scary thing that sometimes I think that God would overlook my sin because it seems so small to my eyes. What Jeremiah describes in this chapters must be the picture of hell where there's no mercy from God, but only His justice. I ask myself today whether I truly fear my God who has every single right to judge us for who we are and at the same time whether I truly know how great His mercy is. O, Lord! Please help us to see our nakedness today to know the full measure of your Grace on us!

Friends, we read in Lamentations 5:21, "Turn us back to You, O LORD, and we will be restored."

What interests me here is that the confession is not, "We will turn back You, O LORD." No, the confession asks the LORD to do it. Why? There is an acknowledgement of helplessness, a realization of depravity such that apart from the LORD producing repentance, there will be no repentance.

Do you ever find yourself falling headlong into sin, even when you know it is sinful? Do you find yourself caught in an addictive cycle, whether it be related to taboo things like alcohol and sex or more "acceptable" addictions like golf and Korean dramas. Do you recognize that your lifestyle does not follow the priorities of God, but you find it hard to change?

On this side of the heaven, we still find ourselves helpless and depraved. We face the daily conflict between our spiritual and carnal natures.

For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish (Galatians 5:17).

This verse seems to suggest that we do not have ultimate control. Later verses speak of the "works of the flesh" and the "fruit of the Spirit" such that righteousness or sinfulness is not in our control but is the natural product of either the Spirit or the flesh respectively.

A modern analogy might be our helplessness with respect to weight gain and weight loss. We cannot simply will our bodies to lose weight or to gain weight. Instead, we watch our diet and we exercise to lose weight. When we snack fattening foods into the late hours and live sedentary days, we tend to gain weight.

As diet and exercise produces weight loss, the instruction for righteousness is to "walk in the Spirit," with the result that "you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). What needs to be clear is that walking in the Spirit does not mean "doing good" but rather submitting to the Spirit's leading. It is not you that produces the good fruit (Galatians 5:22-23) but the Holy Spirit. So also,

Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered (Romans 6:16-17).

Paul argues in Romans that this submission to the Spirit is submission to the Word of God. In fact, the Word of God was produced by the Spirit (2 Peter 1:21) and is the "sword of the Spirit" (Ephesians 6:17). Consider the following parallel passages:

And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:18-20).

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him (Colossians 3:16-17).

The first passage is famous for its unique command to "be filled with the Spirit." The parallel in Colossians helps us to understand what that means. The command to be filled with the Spirit is not a call to some new mystical experience but simply to be filled with the Word of God. Isn't this also the message of Psalm 119:9-11?

How can a young man cleanse his way?
         By taking heed according to Your word.
With my whole heart I have sought You;
         Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments!
Your word I have hidden in my heart,
         That I might not sin against You.

The Spirit does not work apart from God's Word but through God's Word. If this is the case, the only way for you and I to have any discernment and power against sin is through the Word. Remember, we already have the Spirit living within us by virtue of our salvation (Romans 8:9-11; 1 Corinthians 3:16-17), but the working out of His power must be through meditation on and obedience to His Word. Remember, in Jesus' prayer for the disciples, after a long explanation of how the Helper (i.e. Holy Spirit) would come to guide them in the truth (John 14:26), Jesus prayed that the goal was that the disciples might be sanctified by God's truth. And what is that truth? It is none other than the Word of God (John 17:17).

"Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth."

Therefore, my friends, understand that you have no power in yourselves to produce righteousness. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. But you do have a role, and that is to live according to the Spirit's ways, even to submit to His leadership within you. How do you do this? You do this by meditating on and obeying the Word of God. 

To return to the analogy of weight loss. We know that simply a day of exercise and dieting will not produce much weight loss, so also, just occasional time and consideration of God's Word will not produce enduring righteousness. I encourage you to be in the Word daily, meditating upon it and diligently devoting yourself to following the principles you find. There is no quick fix for holiness. No revival, IHOP (Intnl House of Prayer), Transformation, retreat, etc. can do it. Just like a fad diet, they can sometimes do more harm than good. Nothing replaces a day by day, week by week, month by month, and year by year meditation upon God's Word.