Good Morning!
Have you ever blamed God for something in your life? Jeremiah blamed God for the bad times in his life. God called him to deliver multiple messages to Israel and he got into trouble with the leaders of the government and leaders of the Temple. So, Jeremiah begins his prayer to God in Jeremiah 20:7 by saying:
"You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me."
But, as we saw in the previous email, Jeremiah never lost sight of who God was in his life. In verse thirteen he gives God praise and Glory by singing to the Lord!
In the middle of his praise to God, he shows his depression in the remainder of chapter 20. Read...
"Cursed be the day on which I was born. The day my mother bore me- let it never be blessed.
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A male child is born to you," bringing him great joy.
16 Let that man be like the cities the Lord overthrew without compassion. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war cry at noontime
17 because he didn't kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.
18 Why did I come out of the womb to see [only] struggle and sorrow, to end my life in shame?
Jeremiah is not feeling the love. He asked God why He was not killed in his mother's womb. In other words...he wanted to be aborted before being born. Remember where God called Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah "I chose you before I formed you in the womb!" 1:5
Have you ever felt like Jeremiah? Did you know that there are many people who are having similar feelings right now? Some of these people are people that you know. It may be someone who is a friend. It is possible that someone in your family is having these kinds of feelings right now.
Following a youth service in a church in Arkansas a few years ago someone came to me and asked if I would go visit a family that was a friend to them. Just a few days earlier they had a son who had come home from school and took his life. I went to their home and had a conversation with the parents of this young man. Their son had left a suicide note that was lying under his body when they found him in their bedroom. I spoke to the policeman who was called to the scene. Everyone knew this young man. Everyone said he was friendly and outgoing and loved to tell jokes. In fact, when he got off the bus that day the students said he had just told a joke and left the students on the bus laughing. But...something was wrong. His feelings of unworthiness were being covered by his outgoing personality and no one...not even his parents or sister or friends...expected he would take his own life.
Here is Jeremiah who was living with a cloud hanging over his life. He was watching his nation living in sin against God and knew of their soon-to-be demise as a result of their sin. He told them of the impending judgment, but, the citizens would not listen. They were languishing in their own life of rebelling against God. Jeremiah saw the death coming to the nation that he loved greatly.
I have always been a patriot of my country...much like Jeremiah. Today, I am sickened by the decisions being made by our citizens. I reach out to God for her, but, it seems that God has already made up His mind as to what will be done to this nation.
There are marriages that are experiencing trouble due to bad decision-making. Spouses are feeling the ominous load of depression and longing for their marriage to be restored.
There are parents who are losing their children because of decisions that were not honoring to God. Parents feel broken and sons and daughters feel abandoned.
There are believers...church members...who are feeling the toll of feeling disconnected from God. They feel much like Jeremiah and wish they were not even existing to experience the burden of their brokenness.
These people are all around us. They need the hope that God gives through you. There are people in your circle of friends and family who need encouragement and know that they are not alone. Will you be that person?
May God Bless You!
Don Betts
DBEA/campus320
DBEAWINNING.COM