READING: Jeremiah 41-44
“As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the Lord,
we are not going to listen to you!”
Jeremiah 44:16
If you make a commitment to follow God’s word, you had better do it. God will keep His word, including His commitment to bring judgment if we don’t keep our commitment to Him.
The people remaining in Judah in Jeremiah’s day sought his prayer support, and they affirmed their commitment to do whatever God told them to do: “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the Lord our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the Lord our God!”(Jer. 42:5-6).
Listen again to their commitment. They said they would do every word the Lord commanded. Up front, they didn’t worry about whether God’s Word was “pleasant” or “unpleasant.” Indeed, they said it would go well with them if they followed the Lord.
Such commitment. Such faith. Such willingness to follow. At least in words.
In the end, they disobeyed Jeremiah’s words to remain in Judah, made their way to Egypt, and turned to pagan worship that cost them much. It would do most of us good to be more careful in our pronouncements of faithfulness when we have no intention to listen to God in the first place.
ACTION STEPS:
- Evaluate your own heart to determine how much of your following God is really only in words.
- What commitments to God have you made in the past but have never kept?
PRAYER: “God, help me to read my heart properly today. Show me who I really am.”
TOMORROW’S READING:Obadiah, Psalms 82, 83
