Monday, October 14, 2013
Jeremiah 25
"Again and again the Lord has sent you his servants, the prophets, but you have not listened or even paid attention. 5 Each time the message was this: 'Turn from the evil road you are traveling and from the evil things you are doing. Only then will I let you live in this land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors forever." (Jeremiah 25:4-5)
Reading through Jeremiah, I am amazed at how consistent his message is. It had to have been difficult to preach the same message over and over again. Yet, this was God's word to God's people – "How many times do I have to tell you the same thing?"
2007 – probably one of the worst years of my life!
I had decided that I wanted to leave a solid job that I had worked for 8 years in order to pursue a career in teaching. I remember the conversations that I had with several people that were very close to me. Each of them asked me the same thing: "You're leaving your 9-to-5-well-paying-job (with no stress and no work to take home) to teach twenty-five 10 year olds, write lesson plans, and grade papers on the weekends? Why?" Those were good questions. Each time I heard them they made me think. The simple answer to them both was that I wanted to do what I wanted to do. I got my opportunity and did my time for the next 10 months taking two Tylenol every day at 3:15pm. God had sent people to ask me the hard questions and I had thought about not going through with teaching, but in the end it was as if I had never listened or paid attention at all. I simply wanted to have it my way – and, I did…the hard way.
How many times does God have to tell us the same thing before we get it? How many times do we have to bang our heads against the wall before we realize that it hurts? So often we want things to be our way, but there is a cost. It cost the Israelites the land God had given them and many lives. What is it costing us? What are we missing out on that God has desired to do in and through us?
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: "Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it." (Isaiah 30:15)
"So the Lord must wait for you to come to him so he can show you his love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help." (Isaiah 30:18)
Lord, please help us to not only hear You, but to also obey You.
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