DO I WALK ALONE IN THIS DARK NIGHT OF MY SOUL?
Jeremiah 30:3 Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people. I, God, say so. I'll bring them back and Jer. 30:8 "I'll enter their darkness." And we will enter His Presence, always invited (Jer 30:21).
WHAT AM I LOOKING FOR IN MY DESERT? HOPING FOR WHAT?
Jer 31:2 They found grace out in the desert ... looking for a place to rest, they met God out looking for them! God told them, "I've never quit loving you, never will. Expect love, love, and more love! And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again... The time's coming when watchmen will call out from the hilltops of Ephraim: 'On your feet! Let's go to meet our God!" I'll gather those who are blind, lame, limping. You'll come weeping for joy, led along a smooth, uncluttered path, one day. Jer 31:14 - "I'll make sure my people have more than enough." I always struggle with being "too much" and being "not enough" at the same time. Jer 31:22 A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!"
WHAT WILL GOD DO WITH MY SIN? IS HE THINKING ABOUT MY SIN TODAY?
Jer 31:25 I'll refresh tired bodies; I'll restore tired souls.
Jer 31:33 - I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They'll know me firsthand. I'll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned! God's Decree.
"With consciousness of sin, the fire of purifying holiness will sustain your faith in My Goodness, your hope of a beter day, and your love for Me and for this God-forsaking world."
Rescued from our greatest fear.
Rescued from:
Faithless Unbelief
Hopeless Despair
Unloving Self-Obsession.
66 LL
Praise You Abba, Heavenly Father for rescuing me from myself.
ReplyDeleteI pray for continued Grace on our Siesta Mother of Pearl, Bev and my precious String of Pearls.
A Song I must Sing.
Sylvia
Yes. I pray for continued Grace on our Beautiful Bev and all of my String of Pearls.
ReplyDeletePraise You, Abba, for the promise of better days coming.
Jeremiah 31:
20"Oh! Ephraim is my dear, dear son, my child in whom I take pleasure! Every time I mention his name, my heart bursts with longing for him! Everything in me cries out for him.
Softly and tenderly I wait for him." God's Decree.
21 -22"Set up signposts to mark your trip home. Get a good map. Study the road conditions. The road out is the road back. Come back, dear virgin Israel, come back to your hometowns. How long will you flit here and there, indecisive? How long before you make up your fickle mind? God will create a new thing in this land: A transformed woman will embrace the transforming God!"
Loved these precious promises given to God's beloved Israel! I read them for my own prodigal. My husband. There is nothing more longed for than a prodigal's return...changed for good. Home and done with wandering. Pastor James MacDonald has touched my heart with his sermons on "Go Get The Wanderer." I truly believe this is a timely message for America today.
Softly and tenderly, I wait for him...God's Decree. And her. God's Decree.
Come home.
I am such a space hog today. Please forgive me.
ReplyDeleteI just posted on my blog about Jeremiah 31:3. I had to come back and read that verse here from The Message. It deserves a space today...
Jeremiah 31:3
Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!"
So glad he looks for us.
Jer 30:1'Write everything I tell you in a book”
ReplyDeleteDo you all keep a journal? I’ve struggled for years about my privacy in keeping a journal. I’ve kept a prayer list for a while, but a journal seems too revealing. I know God knows, so I just don’t write some things down. Goes back to the old “if you don’t want it told, don’t tell it.” Anyway, just wondering what your thoughts are about spilling out your heart on a page? Actually when I read this Scripture (totally out of context, but it got me thinking :) it doesn’t say write down my stuff-but write down what He tells me. That is pivotal—again, not about how He fits in our story but how we fit in His glorious love story.
Jer. 33:6 “They found grace out in the desert...these people who survived the killing”
Jer. 31:10-14 Their lives will be like a well-watered garden, never again left to dry up.
Jer 31:21 The road out is the road back.
Jer 31:25 I'll refresh tired bodies; I'll restore tired souls.
Jer 31:33-35 This is the brand-new covenant that I will make with Israel when the time comes. I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. And they will be my people. They will no longer go around setting up schools to teach each other about God. They'll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. I'll wipe the slate clean for each of them. I'll forget they ever sinned!" God's Decree.
I just wept when I read Jeremiah 31 today, especially touched by the verse 31:3 in The Message where I think I am out looking for rest in midst of my mess, my 2010 wilderness, and I meet God out looking for me. It happened last night...I really didn't want to do something but felt impressed that God was saying to humble myself and do it...and behold, HE was there. It was simply incredible! Why do I not always think following God is simply incredible.
ReplyDelete"Watch them come! They'll come weeping for joy as I take their hands and lead them, lead them to fresh flowing brooks, lead them along smooth, uncluttered paths." Jer.31:9
ReplyDeleteIsrael is weeping for joy because God is restoring them. He heard their contrition: "...years of running loose, I repented." 31:19
Tears of repentance led to tears of joy.
Their joy:
God was looking for them.
He was going to start over with them and build again.
They would plant vineyards and be able to enjoy the harvest.
They'll be transformed and refreshed. Jer.31:2-6; 31:22-25
The new covenant: A personal encounter with God. Firsthand. Offered to the "dull and the bright, the smart and the slow."
Praise God!
Jer.31:36 "If this ordered cosmos ever fell to pieces...then and only then might Israel fall apart..." What a promise! What comfort this brings to us this day.
I can't comprehend a God whose heart "bursts with longing" for me.
Let me just say: I'm behind in more things than reading Jeremiah.
Father, forgive me for living a life "curved in on itself" this past week. Restore the joy of my salvation. Please!
Annette, I do journal. I keep track of prayer requests and what God is teaching me, along with quotes from the books/articles I read and my "gratitude" list. Writing it down helps me to focus. I make sure I don't write anything that will hurt someone.
Now, off to catch up on my reading.
May God convert our weeping into laughter, comfort us lavishly and invade our grief with JOY!
FG
P.S. Bev: "And I know goodness is in you, lodged deeper in your heart
than badness. I know because I put it there. It's the goodness of My Son." 66LL
Thank you for reflecting Him!