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.

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.

Jeremiah 43

Day 44: Jeremiah 43:1-13

Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'You must not go to Egypt to settle there (Jeremiah 43:2, NIV).

                People can have a tendency to ask God what they should do not for Him to actually give them the answer of what is best but so that He will confirm or approve what they already want to do. My life application study bible said it best, “Johanan and his tiny band had come to Jeremiah for God’s approval of their plan, not for God’s direction.” They asked God where they should go but when Jeremiah told them what the Lord said they called him a liar. The reality is that the plans that God has for us may not always line up with the plans that we have for ourselves but we can rest assured that God knows what is best for us. The great thing about God is that He is not like a lot of the people pleasing people around us that will tell us any and everything that we want to hear. God is not a yes man that is going to speak words to tickle your ears and keep you happy even if it’s at the cost of telling you a lite. He is going to tell us the truth and what we need to hear even if we don’t like it because He knows what is for our benefit. He wants to lead and guide us into all righteousness not all selfishness. At some point we have to lay down our will so that God’s will can be done in our lives. Otherwise we will continue to fight against Him and end up stuck in the same position because of our on disobedience. When God gives you an answer that is either not what you want to hear or opposite of the plan you had already created for yourself take a moment and ask God that His will be done knowing that whatever direction He is leading you is for your good.