JEREMIAH 15:19

Therefore this is what the Lord says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.

TO PONDER

Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet to the people of Judah at a time when the people, from the King down, didn’t want to hear God’s message to them. So Jeremiah had a hard time which included being ignored, ridiculed and even physically abused. He is very disillusioned and ends up having a whinge session to God, even suggesting that God had tricked him into taking on this prophet gig. Today’s verse is part of God’s reply, which may seem to be a bit blunt. God wants Jeremiah to take the focus off himself and to rather focus on the people of Judah who had lost their way in following God’s plan for them. God still dearly loved these people, but their rebellion against God’s purpose for them would mean the complete destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple they so treasured. So the task is urgent. Jeremiah needs to stop feeling sorry for himself and concentrate on getting God’s message out to the people.

I wonder how similar our society today is to that of Jeremiah’s time. It may be that people today are not so much deliberately rejecting God’s message to them, but more that they have never heard it. So it is just as urgent to get God’s message out to people. And you may be thinking, Charles is now going to try to motivate (guilt me) to get involved in spreading the message. For most of my life I would get very defensive at this point and respond that God had not given me the gifts to do evangelism. So I couldn’t get involved. But God had me worked out. He got me to be at the right places and to say and do things that impacted other people’s lives in very positive ways – without me even realising what he was doing until much later. Slowly I came to realise that God had plans and a purpose for me. And I also learned an important message from Jeremiah and the book of the Bible named Lamentations. In this book, Jeremiah records his conversations with God (we might call it praying), but Jeremiah is very open and honest with God about how he feels – including his bitch sessions. Slowly I learned to talk to God about my fears of talking to others about my relationship with Him. His answers to me were: keep talking to my heavenly father about all my feelings, and GO to where he calls me to go. Once there, be relaxed and natural. Listen to people and listen to the Holy Spirit at the same time. And then just let the Holy Spirit do His thing.

So often we feel God is calling us to do things and then leaving us to do it on our own. How wrong we are. Wherever God calls us to go, His Holy Spirit goes with us and His Holy Spirit will guide us in what to say to people. And if we don’t believe that, then we need to openly tell God how we feel and open ourselves for him to change us. Of course, the Holy Spirit may use a whole lot of other people to be the channel of his transforming work in our lives.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, we want to be more willing to answer your call. Please help us with our fears and insecurities. Amen

Today's devotion written by Charles Bertelsmeier, LifeWay Epping