Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act in accordance with everything the Lord your God sends you to tell us. Whether it is favorable or unfavorable, we will obey the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you, so that it will go well with us, for we will obey the Lord our God.” - Jeremiah 42:5-6 I've been reading through Jeremiah in my devotions and the exchange between God's people and the prophet has stuck with me now for several days. Babylon had ripped through Israel and taken thousands captive. Those not taken away were left to do the hard labor jobs in Israel and Jeremiah also remained in the land with the people.
In the midst of some controversial circumstances, the people come to Jeremiah, asking him for a word from the Lord, PROMISING HIM that no matter what the Word is, good or bad, they would obey God. A few days later, Jeremiah brings the Word of the Lord to the people, and guess what...they REJECTED the Word of God because it wasn't what they wanted to hear.
First of all, I felt bad for Jeremiah. What a tough ministry God called this guy too! Years of prophesy and years of continual rejection from the nation of Israel. I thought, "How often is that me?" Promising God I will obey no matter what, then rejecting God's Word at the first sign of personal disagreement? I also thought, "How often is that our 'Christian' society and culture?" Promising God that we'll obey no matter what, then quickly getting derailed because obedience looks practically different and harder than what we pictured in our minds.
Be careful what you promise God. (Jesus said let your Yes be Yes and your No be No)
Be careful regarding what it means to surrender.
We all say it at times. "All to Jesus I surrender, all to Him I freely give" and yet, there's a nagging reality in our lives that we OFTEN don't follow through in obeying Jesus when His Word comes to us and it's time for practical application and change.
It's actually worse than that. In our flesh, it is IMPOSSIBLE to surrender to Jesus. If genuine humility and surrender are not present in our hearts and attitudes, we WON'T surrender all to Jesus, or worse we SAY WE WILL, but we won't follow through.
So what about you today? What about me? Will we give Jesus EVERYTHING? Will we have an attitude of humility that not only talks to Jesus but by the power of the Holy Spirit, surrenders to Jesus, resulting in joy and the fruit of the Holy Spirit? He's certainly worthy of our Surrender today. He died on the Cross, rose from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and even now is working mighty intercession on behalf of all who are His. He gave EVERYTHING. He's worthy of EVERYTHING. May we give Him everything today.
Josh - Acts 20:24