Jeremiah – Chapter 21

Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. Jeremiah 21:4 – The events of this chapter come about 20 years after the previous chapter, and within these many years of Jeremiah’s ministry in Judah his message remained the same. Judah needed to repent of their sin and turn back to God, and if they didn’t destruction would come. Well, that destruction they believed would never actually come was now on their doorstep. After waiting too long, now they asked Jeremiah to approach the Lord to ask for His help. What we see is the Lord’s response, and essentially He is saying you waited too long. After years of sending His prophets to His people calling them to return to Him, the judgement He promised would come had finally come, and now it was too late to repent. Let us understand we face such a reality in our life too. There will be a time when it is too late to repent. God has made it clear through His word and church that we must choose to repent of our sin and follow Jesus. Yet many in this world reject this, refusing to believe judgement will come on their ways of life. Yet the moment they pass from this life, and the judgement is before them, all will seek the face of Jesus, but it will be too late. The time to repent had passed. If you then don’t know Jesus, do not wait too long to follow Him, for there will be a day when it’s too late. For you who are believers, never cease to be carrying out the mission of the Gospel. Even if many won’t listen, some will and it will save them from a terrible future. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3251

And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war. Jeremiah 21:8-9 – How much is this our story? God has set before all of us the way of life and the way of death. For the people in our story, choosing life meant walking out of the city, the place tied with their sin, and surrender to the army. For us, choosing life means stepping away from our devotion to sin and surrendering our life to Jesus? God’s not asking us to rid ourselves of all sin before we come to Him, we need Him in our life to overcome sin. He is though asking us to turn away from our path of sin and start down a path after Him. So is your choice today life? If you already know Jesus, will you choose life again today? Remember choosing to follow Jesus is more than a one time event, it’s an everyday turning from your sin to follow Him. Choose life. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 940

Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us. Jeremiah 21:2- King Zedekiah sent to Jeremiah a couple guys to ask of Jeremiah to speak to God and see what God was going to do about this enemy coming near them. Their hopes was the message they’d get back was that God would work a miracle and the enemy would leave. The message though was very different than they hoped it would be, the enemy was going to destroy their city and all who didn’t surrender to them. How do you handle it when the response back to your prayer isn’t what you hoped it would be? Like when you ask for a door to be opened and it remains shut. When you ask for healing and God says no. When you ask for a relationship and God says not in this season of your life. How we respond is so important within our walk with God. It’s so easy to allow the unwanted response to tear away at our desire for intimacy with God. My lead for you though is reject that fleshly desire to pull away from God when the answer isn’t what you wanted. Instead, as off as it may feel and as undesirable in the moment as it may be, choose to lean further into a closeness with the Lord. While the answer from God wasn’t what you wanted, what you need though still all comes from Him. If God has chosen to move in your life differently than you asked Him to, then our story still needs what He has instead for us. The more things don’t make sense the more we need to lean into the one that is in control of all things. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2153