Jeremiah 44

Day 45: Jeremiah 44:1-30

But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine (Jeremiah 44:18, NIV).

                I was talking to my best friend last night about how the mind is truly a battlefield and if we are not careful we will allow the enemy to come in and plant seeds that cause us to doubt who we are in God or to stray away from Him. This is very much so the case with Judah as they return to idolatry once they get to Egypt. They even go as far to say that things were working out better for them when they were burning incense to the Queen of Heaven. The devil wants to convince you that you were better off before you gave your life to Christ. He wants to convince you that things were so much better when you were doing the very things that did not honor God and he tries to play with your mind to convince you to turn back. The reality is that giving your life to Christ is not a fix all for your problems (in a sense it is for salvation purposes). The truth is you will still encounter different tests and trials and your situations may even get worse before they get better once you start following Christ. The question however is what are you going to do? You will always have an option in your walk with Christ to either pursue Him or to go back to what you knew. When times get difficult it’s easy to return back to our old way of life and what we knew but God tells us that we must endure to the end in order to be saved (Matthew 10:22). Instead of running back to the ways of the world or what you are familiar with when you feel as though you aren’t seeing any results or feel like you’re not getting anywhere, trust God. He has already shown you the things that do not glorify Him, all He needs from you now is to trust Him and to obey Him in the instruction that He gives.