Lamentations 3:24: The Largeness of our Inheritance

Lamentations 3:24 "'The LORD is my portion,' says my soul, 'Therefore I will hope in Him.'"

Have you ever been out to eat and after ordering your food, you see someone else's and wish that you had ordered that? I know I have. It seems to occur frequently when you go out. Sure mine looks decent, but yours looks great! Maybe you are thinking the same thing, but this plate is my portion and that plate is your portion.

I know that we all have problems with wanting what we don't have - that whole "the grass is greener on the other side" idea. When the Lord is my portion, I have a massive banquet set before me, a veritable feast with steaks piled high, potatoes boiled, sauteed, and baked. There are delectable greens of every shade and form and sweet breads to make the mouth water. Afterwards there is ice cream, cobbler, pie, puddings and cake. So why, if I have this set before me does the greasy burger with the wilted lettuce and drooping cheese look good? Why if I have a kings dinner waiting for me do I find myself desiring fast food? Its not right! The Lord is our portion assures me that I have more waiting for me than what is available right now and right here.

Another way of looking at it is this: The Lord is our inheritance. In Psalm 16:5 David writes "O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup..." (KJV) Sure the Lord my have infinite children, but he also has infinite resources. He owns the cattle on the thousand hills, and that is merely the tip of it all! Solomon in all his wisdom never accumulated such wealth. JD Rockefeller did not have even a small portion of God's goods. Even if Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Croesus, the Sultan of Bahrain, the Rothschild family, and even the Queen of England (and for good measure lets just throw in the entire Forbes 500 list of wealthiest people in the world) combined all their wealth and goods they are still poor compared to God, and God promises us an inheritance in Him.

God has made us his children, adopted us into his family and set us up in His business, and He provides our paycheck, our living arrangements, our food. etc. With all this, we still seem to forget just how tremendous He is and His assets are and we start to worry about ourselves. We want what the world has. We want the cars, the houses, the apparent sustainability of lifestyle, the grades, the fame, the honor, etc. In short we forget that Jesus, our supposed inspiration, ever present help in trouble, saviour, redeemer, deliverer, and big brother was by earthly standards poor. He was homeless, He walked everywhere, He ate what He could glean on the side of the road or what people gave Him. He did not even have an umbrella for when it rained! Yet He sits today at the right hand of Father God and beckons us to walk and live as He did. Our portion, or our reward is tremendous.

The cup of blessings is ours for the asking! So really, whatever slight issues we have here on earth are nothing in the long run. The real issue is are we truly walking in Jesus' footsteps, doing the work that Father God has asked us to do?
When the day is over and our time of tending the sheep or gardening in the vineyard (or any of the other examples Jesus used) is done, we have a massive feast waiting for us in our honor because God's hand selected our portion because He loves us so very much.

This week, lets focus on the right things, the things before us rather than the things we want. Lets just remember that God's promises are eternal and are always kept.