Thank you for the application question on Lamentations, “How does Lamentations teach God’s people to respond when we’re being disciplined by God for sin?”
Sadly, God’s people don’t think too much of sin. It’s not a big deal or it doesn’t matter at all. We have become callous to sin. In fact, we don’t see it as sin. It’s our “right” to choose what is right and wrong for us. The Bible has lesser and lesser authority over believers.
When illness comes to us, it is interpreted as an accident or coincident. It’s not from God unless it is something major whereby that person questions God’s love or justice. In fact, God receives the blame for our unhappiness. Lamentations is irrelevant to them just as church discipline is null and void in many churches.
I believe that believers should grieve and mourn when we see fellow believers living in sin. Instead of ignoring or condoning it, we ought to rebuke or exhort the brother or sister to walk rightly with the Lord. As Jeremiah lamented over the fall of Jerusalem and the devastation on the Israelites, so we need to return to the call of repentance for restoration.
For a church to take that kind of stance would mean the loss of attendance, membership, service and financial decline. For most churches, they are not willing to accept that kind of loss or cost. Thus, no one says anything about sin or illness. It is swept under the rug even when the pastor or church member visits a person. Hardly anyone dare to ask about their spiritual condition. We just blindly pray for their recovery without even thinking about the cause for discipline.
Granted that we can’t judge another person’s heart, but we can ask them if they are walking rightly before the Lord before we pray for their well-being. Not all sickness is discipline from the Lord nor all sickness is just a natural event.
Summary: We need to ask the sick person for self-reflection on their walk with the Lord before we pray for their well-being. We don’t want to be found colluding with their sin!
-Kingston