"Sitting Down"

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1)

  Maybe you don't have any of those regrets mentioned; but regardless, I know for a fact, nobody out there has lived a perfect life. The Bible makes that fact perfectly clear: "There is none righteous, no, not one." (Romans 3:10) The first thing that we must understand about this Psalm, is that it is not a melancholy piece of literature about being without hope; it is about our greatest hope, the fact that God loves us and is with us through thick and thin; that no matter where we are and how messed up our lives might look, we can look to God for restoration and redemption, no matter what! This is nothing more than a pause, a place where God places His hand upon your shoulder, and simply says, "Can we talk?" That is what Zion represents in the spiritual sense; where God takes what belongs to the world, and He conforms it to His property and for His glory! Ironically, the world does just the opposite; taking everything that God has made that is beautiful, and turns it into something dark and sinister. Absolutely not! That is what we must say, when it comes to letting anything get between us and our God, we must not let it happen; even though it still happens all the time! If anything, this is the point where God calls us Friend! When He steps away from us being servant or child, and says, "Friend, can we get a few things understood?" That was pretty much what Jesus did, asking Peter there times, "Peter, do you love me?" The first two times were about unconditional love; but the third time, the love He spoke of was conditional: Do you love me as a friend! God is not your enemy, no matter what catastrophic trial you are facing; even if it involves death! "Do you believe that?" That was the question Jesus asked Martha, regarding the fact that He was the resurrection and the life. Well, is it so? Because friends don't lie to one another, and they surely don't abandon one another! You think about the implication of what that means, because if we are talking about God being our Friend, if He wants to talk to us, we need to listen! Don't say you don't have the time, because that is the furthest thing from the truth...

"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." (Zechariah 13:6)