SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/3/2014
7:55 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
Restoration: A New Land and Kingdom PT-3
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Jeremiah
32:26-44
Message of the
verses: As we begin our third
sub-point under this main point we need to realize that Jeremiah truly needed confirmation
from Lord about what he had just done and that was to buy a piece of property
from his uncle when the entire nation was about to fall into the hands of the
Babylonians. Jeremiah wanted to make
sure that his faith was truly directed by the Lord and not by other
circumstances.
The Confirmation (Jeremiah 32:26-44): “26 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,
saying, 27 “Behold, I am
the LORD, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" 28 Therefore thus says the
LORD, "Behold, I am about to give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans
and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will take it.
29 "The Chaldeans who are fighting
against this city will enter and set this city on fire and burn it, with the
houses where people have
offered incense to Baal on their roofs and poured out drink offerings to other
gods to provoke Me to anger. 30
"Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight
from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their
hands," declares the LORD. 31 “Indeed this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger
and My wrath from the day that they built it, even to this day, so that it
should be removed from before My face, 32 because of all the evil of the sons
of Israel and the sons of Judah which they have done to provoke Me to
anger-they, their kings, their leaders, their priests, their prophets, the men
of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33
"They have turned their back to Me and not their face; though I
taught them, teaching again and again, they would not listen and receive
instruction. 34 “But they put their detestable things in the house which is
called by My name, to defile it. 35
"They built the high places of Baal that are in the valley of
Ben-hinnom to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to
Molech, which I had not commanded them nor had it entered My mind that they
should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. 36 “Now therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel
concerning this city of which you say, ’It is given into the hand of the king
of Babylon by sword, by famine and by pestilence.’ 37 "Behold, I will gather them out of all the lands to which I have
driven them in My anger, in My wrath and in great indignation; and I will bring
them back to this place and make them dwell in safety. 38 “They shall be
My people, and I will be their God; 39 and I will give them one heart and one
way, that they may fear Me
always, for their
own good and for the good of their children after them. 40 “I will make
an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them, to do
them good; and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not
turn away from Me. 41 “I will rejoice over them to do them good and will
faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul. 42 “For
thus says the LORD, ’Just as I brought all this great disaster on this people,
so I am going to bring on them all the good that I am promising them. 43 ’Fields will be bought in this
land of which you say, "It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is
given into the hand of the Chaldeans." 44 ’Men will buy fields for money, sign and seal deeds, and call in
witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the environs of Jerusalem, in the cities
of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland and
in the cities of the Negev; for I will restore their fortunes,’ declares the
LORD."”
I have something that I have been struggling with off and
on that actually started before I became a believer, but did not realize like I
do now that the struggle was with a sinful habit. I have read many books on the subject and am
actually reading the one book for the third time. The authors of this book say that there can
be help if I follow a certain plan that they outline in their book. I was very doubtful, but also because I
needed the help I wanted to believe that God would use this book to give me
relief from this struggle. At the same
time of reading their solution I have been studying this 32nd
chapter of Jeremiah where we read that “Nothing is too difficult for Me,” words
that are very meaningful for me at this time, and give me a new hope that I can
receive help from the Lord.
Back to Jeremiah, and we see that the Lord comes to
Jeremiah in his doubt to tell him that He was still going to destroy this city
where so much idolatry had been going on by His people. Jeremiah needed to hear from the Lord at this
time and God is faithful, which is actually the theme of this section and
faithfulness is one of the attributes of the Lord. God is going to be faithful to the promises
that He gave to Abraham even though his offspring has not been faithful to him. In an endnote Dr. Wiersbe writes the
following: “The statement (about
faithfulness) goes back to Abraham (Gen. 18:14), and was also used by Moses
(Num. 11:23) and Job (Job 42:2). Gabriel
echoed it when he said to Mary ‘For with God nothing shall be impossible’ (Luke
1:37), and Jesus said, ‘With God all things are possible’ (Matt. 19:26). Paul’s testimony was ‘I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me’ Phil. 4:13, NKJV). Jeremiah discovered that God’s character is
faithful and His promises are true no matter how we feel or what our
circumstances may be.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes this sub-section writing “The
application of this Scripture for today’s believer is obvious: The world laughs at us for our faith and our
investments in the future, but one day God will keep His promises and vindicate
us before people and angels. Instead of
living for the sinful pleasures of this present world, we seek the joys of the
world to come. We refuse to sacrifice
the eternal for the temporal. The unbelieving
world may ridicule us, but intimately God will vindicate His people.” The statement that we have just read by
Warren Wiersbe reminds me of what the writer of the book of Hebrews said about
Moses: “24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25
choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to
enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26
considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt; for he was looking to the reward Hebrews 11:24-26).” The treasures of Egypt were enough to pay off
our national debt and then some, so it was no small treasure that Moses turned
down, yet what He will receive from the Lord is far greater than what he turned
down.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: God is faithful
and nothing is too difficult for Him.
My Steps of Faith for Today: Trust the Lord to see me through the
difficulties that I face today.
Memory verses for the
week: Philippians 2:5-11.
5 Have this attitude in
yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the
form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but
emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the
likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this
reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is
above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those
who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue
will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “The Word of God.” (Hebrews 4:12).
Today’s Bible
question: “In the parable of Jesus, who
helped the man who had been beaten and robbed?”
Answer in our next SD.
7/3/2014 8:34 AM
It was three years ago
today that I began to put my Spiritual Diaries on this blog site and God has been
faithful in that almost 39,000 pages views have looked at. My prayer each day is that the Lord will save
those who read these page views, those who are lost, and that believers will
grow (2 Pet. 3:18), and that the Lord will light the fire of revival into the
hearts of all believers for our time is short and revival is what is needed
around the world. Thanks to all who have
looked at this blog sight.
No comments:
Post a Comment