God’s patience is on display in this passage even though we are breaking in at the point where He to the final straw. His people’s rejection of His warnings and instruction has been ignored and rejected for decades and He cares so much for their ultimate good, that He will send consequences that will be painful and traumatic.
Lord, help me to listen right away and not need decades of your patience. Allow me to follow You at the first instruction.
It is pretty amazing as God is sending out His people to exile because of their rejection of Him, His plan or to prosper some of them. These plans seem to not be dependent on their actions, but fully reliant on Gods character. Lord, continue to pull my heart toward yourself, allow me to stay surrendered in all things.
Caring for others, seeking justice and living our righteousness is what our life looks like when we know God.
God has clearly given us all that we need to understand for how we live…He has placed the path for life in our hands through scripture, obey and surrender to find peace, joy and abundant life. Reject and find chaos, destruction and death. It really is that simple…
Jeremiah has such a hard calling: to declare Gods word to the people of Israel knowing they will reject it and hate him personally. This chapter we see him cursing the day he was born and wishing he would have died…he is in a tough situation that he cannot do anything about. He is fully reliant on God. Then we get this gem, “the LORD is with me.”
What a blessing that God does not shy away from the hard moments of our life, no matter where our mental health is or how much suffering we endure, God is with us.
The devastation of this chapter is complete…God declares His plan to punish the Israelites for turning to other gods. Worshipping in detestable ways their attention and devotion was aimed to other things. This seems easy to avoid today as we don’t physically sacrifice animals to gods…but we do sacrifice time, money and our attention to many things that are not God…entertainment, pleasure or food are areas that can pull my focus away from Jesus.
Lord, help me to see where You would have me restore my focus to You…then give me the strength to actually do it.
God has a plan to prosper His people, which sometimes includes discipline when we are headed the wrong direction or following our own heart. I am so thankful God is compassionate with me as I know too many times, I am stubbornly following my own plans…help me to Trust Your sovereign plan and follow You at every turn!
