Jeremiah the Prophet and Chapter One of Jeremiah.
I have been studying this Chapter for the women's bible study I am involved with and as I have read and re-read this Chapter I am finding it so exciting. I really love the Old Testament and this book of the Bible is filled with crazy things that God asked Jeremiah to do and imagery that is off the wall. A branch of an almond tree and a boiling pot tilting to the North are two of the mystery's spoken about in Jeremiah Chapter 1.
What I am noticing is that during this time in history, Jeremiah was part of a nation that was headed for destruction. The times were chaotic in the political arena, morality was taking a steep downward turn and spirituality was becoming a smorgasbord of false gods. Hmmmmmm....sound familiar?
Jeremiah prophesied for 40 years, telling the nation to turn from their sins and turn back to the one true God. He was faithful in the face of the moral decline and spiritual confusion. God encouraged Jeremiah telling him that he was created with a specific appointment on his life and that he has been known by God even before he was born.
Jeremiah thinks that he is not well spoken and that he is too young for this appointment but God tells Jeremiah to not be afraid; because God will be with him and God will rescue him. God will rescue him. Did you catch that?? God isn't saying that he will spare Jeremiah pain in this process and he is not saying that Jeremiah will be unscathed.
This can be scary at times. God allows us to experience hurt , pain, grief, loss and a myriad of other feelings and circumstance. BUT He will be with us during these times; and when the time is right, God will rescue us. The way that I think of it is that ,"This ____________ (fill in the blank: trial, grief, pain, sin etc.) will not last forever. God will eventually rescue me when His good and glorious Will has been completed in my life. God's timing is perfect. God promised to rescue Jeremiah from trouble but not keep him from trouble.
You know what else? Jeremiah was faithful and humble to God's leading. Jeremiah prophesied for 40 years but he never saw his people heed his words and turn from their sins. Wow...faith even when he did not see immediate results. I really need to learn that and mediate on faithfulness because I want to see fruit when I am working hard for His Kingdom and I do get discouraged when I don't see the fruit...but that does not mean I am out of God's will, it just means things happen in God's timing and not in mine.
Jeremiah is a lot more than just Jeremiah 29:11
All this just from Chapter 1 of Jeremiah; can't wait to see how much more the Lord will share with me.
Blogging...
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I may have just created a monster... Pastor Debbie
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