Jeremiah 45 &46

Day 46: Jeremiah 45-46

Do not be afraid, Jacob, my servant, for I am with you," says the LORD. "I will completely destroy the nations to which I have exiled you, but I will not completely destroy you. I will discipline you, but with justice; I cannot let you go unpunished (Jeremiah 46:28, NLT).

                There are two important factors that we can take away from these two chapters; the first is to not get weary in what you do for God. The note in my life application study bible pretty much summed it up: “Baruch had long been serving this unpopular prophet, writing his book of struggles and judgments, and now he was upset. God told Baruch to take his eyes off himself and whatever rewards he thought he deserved.  If Baruch did this, God would protect him. It is easy to lose the joy of serving our God when we take our eyes off Him. The more we look away from God’s purposes toward our own sacrifices, the more frustrated we will become.” When we start looking at the struggle, the tests, the tribulations, and everything else that are nothing more than mere distractions, we stop looking at God. God is the source of our strength and peace during difficult times so we cannot afford to take our eyes off of Him. Otherwise we will begin to break under pressure and may even give up because we’re looking at what is wrong or what we have lost instead of focusing on what God has led us to do for His glory. The second thing is that sin will not go unpunished (Jeremiah 46: 28). God has to correct us so that one, we know not to continue in sin and two, so that we are led back to Him. Although we may not like being corrected by God we have to understand that there are benefits from his chastisement. One of those benefits is that His correction should lead us to repentance which leads us to Him. Another benefit is that through repentance He purifies us and shows us how to follow Him. Discipline is for our good, we just have to learn to stop fighting God on it.