- …and said to Jeremiah the prophet, “Let our plea for mercy come before you, and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant—because we are left with but a few, as your eyes see us—3 that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go, and the thing that we should do.” Jeremiah 42:2-3 – I have to imagine these were the words the prophet Jeremiah was longing to hear from the people of Judah. The people wanted Jeremiah to seek out the Lord’s direction and whatever was said by the Lord, good or bad, they would do. After seeing years of rejection and rebellion from the people to God’s words, hearing that they finally wanted to follow what God said would have been a blessing to this worn out prophet. Yet as we’ll see in the next chapter, the actions of the people didn’t match their words. Verbally they said they would follow the Lord in whatever He said, but their actions said we’ll only follow God when the direction He gives us matches the path we want to go. In our story the posture we take should be willing to go wherever the Lord directs us, not only being obedient to His path when His path lines up with the one you want to go down. For often the path we are led down by the Lord will not be the easiest nor the most glory giving one. Instead it may be through the fires and across the deserts we were trying to avoid. There, in that space, is where our faith is put to the test. Do we still follow God when His lead is in a different direction than we want to go? While His path may be different than yours and while it may carry difficulties along it you want to avoid, you will never regret making the choice to follow Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3272
- Then the sword that you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine of which you are afraid shall follow close after you to Egypt, and there you shall die. Jeremiah 42:16 – The people asked Jeremiah to seek direction from God. He shared with them that if they stayed in this land, God would bring them life and peace and would build them up. But if they refuse to listen to what God says because they fear war and hunger would come if they stayed, then the very thing they fear is what they’ll find anywhere outside of where God told them to be. We too can fear certain things and plan our life accordingly. We don’t want things like a bad relationship or depression so we follow our understanding of life rather than what God says to do. What God is teaching here is that the things we don’t want in our life come into our life by pursuing paths God says not to go down. That’s not God being mean, that’s God being loving and sharing with us that there is a path we can follow where that sort of stuff isn’t a part of. Let’s seek out then His path to find a life more free of the things none of us want. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 961
- At the end of ten days the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Jeremiah 42:7 – Jeremiah is sent by the people to inquire of God on what their next step should be. Now we see the word is given and the people disobeyed it, but we’ll read and discuss more of that in tomorrow’s devotional. Here I want to focus on this one passage stuck in the middle of this story. Jeremiah went to receive God’s direction, and it came immediately right? Jeremiah probably asked just one time in prayer and suddenly received the fullness of God’s direction. That though isn’t the image we see happening in scripture. It took ten days before any direction was given. We may say that’s not too long, yet how many of us look for God’s direction, pray once…maybe twice, and if things aren’t clear immediately just go our own way. Know it may take time before God gives clear directions. It may take a single prayer, it may take 10 days, it may take years before you see in fullness why God moved the way He did. Are you willing to submit to a God who may not give you immediate answers? Are you willing to wait on the Lord? Know God will lead you when directions are needed and in the wait know you have a calling to love God and love people where you are at. Be willing to wait on the Lord, for He is faithful and true, and His love never fails. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2174
Daily DEVO 