This is a very sad time in our lives. "It's precisely our consciousness of sin that can lead us nearer to God." Closer, Our God, bring us closer as we deal with our own stuff. So aware of the presence of a Good God in the midst of some confusion over here. We don't understand but we trust. We are in the dark night of the soul and pray we hold tight and remain faithful.
Why are we acting like tourists?
Jeremiah 14:7 Drought...We know we're guilty. We've lived bad lives—but do something, God. We've betrayed God, Hope of Israel. Our only Hope...14:9 - God, you are, in fact, here, here with us! You know who we are—you named us! Don't leave us in the lurch.
Does God always listen when we pray?Jeremiah 14:11 God said to me, "Don't pray that everything will turn out all right for this people. When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won't listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I'll not accept them....their preachers are liars telling them that everything is going to be okay. Oh my! God's eyes pour out tears for the people while the preachers go about business as usual as though nothing happened. Don't break faith with us, God.
Does God ever give up on us?
Jeremiah 15:1 "Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn't feel a thing for this people. They walked out on Me. ...
Why this pain and no healing in sight?
Jeremiah 15:15 Your Words showed up and I ate them....but why this pain and no healing in sight? You're nothing, God, but a mirage, a lovely oasis in the distance—and then nothing!
Is my confidence in the men I know and my success?
Jeremiah 17:1 "Judah's sin is engraved with a steel chisel, engraved on their granite hearts. Jeremiah 17:5 God's Message: Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight. "But blessed is the man who trusts Me. They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers— bearing fruit every season. Jeremiah 17:9 "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind. things. I treat them as they really are, not as they pretend to be."
Does God always listen when we pray?Jeremiah 14:11 God said to me, "Don't pray that everything will turn out all right for this people. When they skip their meals in order to pray, I won't listen to a thing they say. When they redouble their prayers, bringing all kinds of offerings from their herds and crops, I'll not accept them....their preachers are liars telling them that everything is going to be okay. Oh my! God's eyes pour out tears for the people while the preachers go about business as usual as though nothing happened. Don't break faith with us, God.
Does God ever give up on us?
Jeremiah 15:1 "Jeremiah, even if Moses and Samuel stood here and made their case, I wouldn't feel a thing for this people. They walked out on Me. ...
Why this pain and no healing in sight?
Jeremiah 15:15 Your Words showed up and I ate them....but why this pain and no healing in sight?
Is my confidence in the men I know and my success?
Jeremiah 17:1 "Judah's sin is engraved with a steel chisel
Father, Forgive me for falling back into thinking others will come through and thinking I can do it in my own strength. Guard my heart to trust in You, Lord-You alone. Help me to keep the Sabbath holy and not pursue my own agenda; keep my prayers focused on Your Goodness and not my stuff, all the ways I’ve been disappointed--whining, worried, barren. Clean my heart of all deception and sin that I may bear fruit in every season of this life. In the Name of my Only Savior, Christ Jesus, Amen.
ReplyDelete17:5-8 Cursed is the strong one who depends on mere humans, Who thinks he can make it on muscle alone and sets God aside as dead weight. He's like a tumbleweed on the prairie, out of touch with the good earth. He lives rootless and aimless in a land where nothing grows. "But blessed is the man who trusts me, God, the woman who sticks with God. They're like trees replanted in Eden, putting down roots near the rivers— Never a worry through the hottest of summers, never dropping a leaf, Serene and calm through droughts, bearing fresh fruit every season.
17:9 "The heart is hopelessly dark and deceitful, a puzzle that no one can figure out. But I, God, search the heart and examine the mind.”
17:24 'But now, take seriously what I tell you. Quit desecrating the Sabbath by busily going about your own work, and keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing business as usual.”
Bev, I thought about you all day yesterday. I will call you today when I get on the road. You're in my prayers, sweet friend.
ReplyDeleteBev, you have been on my heart and mind for days now. Know that I have lifted you up in my prayers and I'm sure others have to. Keep looking up and holding on...He is there no matter the confusion, no matter the darkness.
ReplyDeleteSo very sad...
ReplyDeleteBev, I am so troubled for you and your husband. I know God will carry you both through this, but I know it is painful.
I know.
And I am so very sorry.
I will email and I will pray that God binds up your wounds like the good samaritan bound up the wounds and cared for the one who was robbed.
I got to tell y'all, it's bad enough to be living a very sad time in your life, but then to be studying these verses and feeling God's anger so Big. This is Big Anger. It's like God standing up, His entire awesomeness growing higher and higher until He is like a FIRE and He is BIG!
These verses make me want to run and hide! He surely is sending out blazing rockets from His ears! And His mouth breathes fire! And His eyes, so big and wild! How could anyone stand before Him and not be burned UP!
I think about Christ turning over the tables at the temple where the money-changers had desecrated the House of Prayer.
Notice God is very angry about the sabbath and how people are doing business as usual.
What about worship?
What about dorrow over sin...leading to sacrifices poured out on the altar?
Don't marry, Jeremiah. I've cursed these people. For generations.
My God, this is a side of You that none of us ever want to see. We don't even know this side of You. But we know that You are God. We know that Your Power is Mighty. We know that You have all-seeing eyes. What we think is hidden, You see bright as day. What we hide from our own understanding, You know it full well.
You know our intent and our purpose. Deliver us from evil. You know the ways we fail You. Deliver us from refusing to look in the mirror and find the one who has walked away from You. Yes, we do go our own way. And religion does not fill the purpose You have for us. Religion gets in the way of personal relationship...from grace...from loving the Lord our God with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds...and others as ourselves. Religion makes little, wooden gods that can't talk and can't see. Religion turns our works into acts of salvation.
Forgive me for all the things I've done that took the place of all the ways I could have loved You more. Faith without works is dead. But works without our deep, abandoned passion for You...they are just filthy rags. Like the shorts Jeremiah hid between the rocks. They will not save us. Little gods won't save us.
We are saved by faith in Christ. Nothing of ourselves to boast. We boast only of the Lord and what He has done.
Forgive us for hurting You. Forgive us for whining.
Forgive us for little love and little faith. Grow us up.
In Jesus Name. Amen.
Too many times I'm guilty of writing or telling someone I'll pray for them, then click to the next thing. This time I promise I'll pray.
ReplyDeleteI love you,
angie xoxo
Bev,
ReplyDeleteI am praying Proverbs 19:21 Many are the plans of a man's heart but only the LORD's purpose prevails.
I am also praying Ephesians 6 to put on the full armor of God and then to stand, stand firm in His power and providence.
Hebrews 10:35-36 So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. 36 You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
This is a prayer song I must sing to the LORD for you.
Sylvia