- Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. Jeremiah 3:3 – As we work through this book, a common message we’ll see and write about is the waywardness of Israel at this time. Instead of a faithful obedience to the Lord like they should have been displaying, what was displayed was spiritual adultery. Israel had chosen to run after all sorts of false gods, breaking the covenant relationship they had with the Lord . In our verse we see God working within their life so they would see Him and change their path. God withheld the rain so drought would open their eyes to their sin and their need of Him. Yet, as we see in the verse, they refused to be ashamed. Meaning the refused to accept they were doing anything wrong in their idol worship, even when God spoke to them about it and worked miraculous signs to show them of their wrong. They chose to remain stubborn in their sin despite all the time God sought to change their ways. How are you doing with this concept? Has there been ways the Lord has been “withholding the showers” to get your attention to a change He is calling to you to make within your life? How then are you responding to such a message from the Lord? Humbly repenting of said sin or stubbornly continuing in the sin like Israel in Jeremiah’s day? See that God has a better plan for you than a life of sin. Refuse to let God’s words of direction bounce off a stubborn forehead, but instead let the direction be embrace by you and applied to your life. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3232
- Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Jeremiah3:13 – For true repentance to take place, you must acknowledge your sin as sin. It wasn’t just something you shouldn’t have done, or something simply not cool. It’s the completely rebellion of God’s way. God says He wants us to follow Him and He is opening the way for us to come to Him, but we need to acknowledge that this sin isn’t acceptable in our story with God. Acknowledge to yourself and to God that you see your sin as sin and you know it can’t be a part of your story anymore. Once that takes place, turning from it for good can take place. Just remember God isn’t here trying to hold shame over your head, He’s trying to open your eyes to the shame sin brings and how following Him takes you away from all that. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 922
- The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.” Jeremiah3:6-8 – When scripture here is speaking of “playing the whore,” understand that as they gave themselves over to the worship of false gods. Here Israel is deep in idolatry, worshiping all the false gods it can. What’s heartbreaking is that Judah, her sister nation, sees the idolatry of Israel and instead of rejecting the false gods Judah as well begin to worship them. Let this be a reminder to you that sinfulness is contagious. We have people in our story constantly watching our lives and how we choose to live. Often they are watching to learn how to live for God. So when they see us actively in sin, they too will follow in that sin. Is there then a sin active in your life right now? Would you be pleased to see your child or your friend having that sin active in their life? If not, then seek out Jesus’ strength to make a change in that area. Seek to live a life that if mirrored by others would help them draw closer to Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2135
Daily DEVO 