Listen to Jeremiah 15-16

Sometimes the journey in Lent is so hard. It’s difficult not to read the scriptures and personalize them to the point that you miss what is happening. Remember that this book is a recounting of how far the people, who God called His own people, had fallen away from Him. It was so far that there was no returning them to peace with Him. Exile was coming. The consequences of their sins were upon them. It is hard to read through it and not see the grace or goodness. We too, might be feeling like Jeremiah when he said:

Why has my pain become unending,

my wound incurable,

refusing to be healed?

Jeremiah 15:18b

Jeremiah too was becoming over this. He too, has swung heavy in the emotions, everything from have mercy to vindicate me, to where is the vengence for what they have done. But even though the Lord is explaining what will become of these people. Even as the descriptions of what their sin is about to bring upon them there are still glimmers of hope that we will miss if we get distracted by how we feel about what is happening. It is awful. Yes, because sin is awful.

Now look at this:

“However, look, the days are coming”—the Lord’s declaration—“when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but rather, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the Israelites from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their ancestors.

Jeremiah 16:14-15

The Lord is saying there is coming a day when they will stop looking at when He brought them out of Egypt but they will say “He brought them from the land of the north” and the places where they had been banished too. God would write a new story. This flash of hope is easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. When all we see is sin, consequence, and a casting out of their lands.

Here’s the thing about God, even if we disqualify ourselves through disobedience, because of His great love – the Lord will write a ‘reroute’ into our story. He is the God of Hope!

I have often said to myself when I am afraid to move forward in my life, “You dont have to worry, if you mess up, if you did it wrong, if you failed, God knows how to get you to where you are supposed to be. All along the journey, He puts offramps back to Himself.” Keep praying friends for those that are far from God. Your prayers may be the ink in the pen when God rewrites someone’s story. Amen

Maybe today you need a reroute in your life. Pray:

Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us; that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Lord we return to you!

  If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

1 John 1 :8-9

Thanks for Listening,

Starla