How very fast these weeks have gone! Five weeks behind us and here we are heading into the last week of our study of Jeremiah. I hope you have gotten as much out of it as I have. Looking forward to one last week of diving into what this prophet of long ago has to share with us.
The last day of week five was titled, "Rescue with Repentance" - the only way to true spiritual rescue is through our true and broken-hearted repentance. Key word in that sentence is "true"...we won't truly be rescued unless we are truly repentant. The people of Judah voiced their repentance, but their lives didn't reflect the words that were coming out of their mouths. Our text tells us, "The people were crying out for rescue, but God knew their hearts. Their motives weren't right. They wanted God's hand of help without any relationship or repentance...Like a good parent, God chose to allow Judah to experience the difficulty brought upon them by their bad decisions." Until our hearts cry out for rescue, with pure motives and ready for restoration upon our repentance, God won't reach down to rescue us, just as He did not respond to Judah. True repentance isn't just admitting our sinfulness and saying we're sorry, it is turning away from our sinfulness and asking God to give us the strength to remain turned away, to desire to distance ourself from what we know is opposed to God's will for our lives and to turn to God and the lives of holiness that He calls us to.
When we stand in opposition to God and refuse to turn, we find ourselves lying about God and about ourselves. If we find ourselves thinking that God is less than who He really is or if we find ourselves thinking that we have as much authority over our lives as God does, we need to stop and review our lives and see where we might have gotten off track, where there is a need for repentance and a u-turn to get turned back around. That's why Psalm 139:23-24 is such a good prayer to routinely voice to God, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting."
From our text, "God is always faithful to redirect us, rescuing us from a road of dangerous pitfalls." It's so much better to call out for rescue when we realize we're on the wrong road, but we haven't yet fallen into a pit. The sooner we heed God's redirection, the better. And the sooner we learn that God is for us, never against us, oh, so much the better....then we are not nearly so prone to get on that rocky road in the first place! Lord, help us trust You....that's what you keep asking of us, isn't it?
Our fifth week was focused on Quitting the Blame Game, Personal Responsibility. In our session on Friday, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the Scripture of Jeremiah 6:16, "This is what the Lord says, 'Stop at the crossroads and look around. Ask for the old, godly way, and walk in it. Travel its path and you will find rest for your souls. But you reply, 'No, that's not the road we want.'"
Isn't that just a treasure of a Bible verse? So, so much good advice packed in this verse. And yet, the closing sentence shows the people of Judah, and the people of today, responding with the same stubborn comeback, "Nope - that's not the way we want to go." There has just been an offer made of rest for our souls, and yet we reject that offer and think we have a better way. And then we wonder why we have lives full of anxiety, stress and malcontent! Again, God is asking us, "Trust Me!" and we say, "No, we really think we can find a better way to get to where we're going." God has a better way for our earthly lives than we can devise on our own, and He has a much better way for our eternal lives. He has THE WAY...the only way. If we try to get there on our own, we're going to be sorely disappointed - we can't. There's a chasm that is unmanageable for us to traverse, we won't make it.
What is that old, godly way that we are to ask for? Jeremiah knew the Torah, and he very likely was thinking of Deuteronomy 30:11-20, "Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 1 declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
God gives us a clear message, He shows the way for us, we are the ones who have the choice to make as to how we will live. Then He made it even clearer for us when He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to tell us that He had come to let us know He was preparing an eternal home for us, and that if He was preparing that home for us, He would surely come again and claim us as His own and take us to that glorious new home.
Stop, look, ask, walk, and find...
- Stop what we're doing now and see if we need an adjustment
- Look around us and see who we need to be helping along the way,
- Ask, continually ask, for God's direction, look to that old, godly way
- Walk in that way - travel that path
- Find rest! The rest that only comes through the One who can provide...Matthew 11:28 "Come to me, all who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest."
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