Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Wednesday, June 17th: Jeremiah 32-33, Matthew 26:26-50 ~ Tammy

Today's passage from the Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Jeremiah 32-33; Matthew 26:26-50

Humanly speaking, practically speaking, it made no sense for Jeremiah to buy a field outside Jerusalem.  The city had been under siege for a year, and he bought land occupied by soldiers - a poor investment by any criteria.  Except spiritual criteria.  Jeremiah was demonstrating his faith in God's promise to bring his people back and to rebuild Jerusalem. 

Trust and faith, by their very definitions, do not come easy.  At least, not when we focus on earthly and temporal things.  When we focus on God, on His already fulfilled promises, on His character - then we are reassured that our faith and trust is far from misplaced, and truly is the only wise thing to do.

God has promised to restore Jerusalem - not because of anything they did, but because it was part of His ultimate plan.  God's plans always prevail.  Always.  But we can choose to be blessed by being a part of their fulfillment or face the consequences of going against God.

Jeremiah 33:3 was a verse I memorized in Teen Missions.
Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

God is always ready to answer us - but we need to ask for His help.  Obviously He can take care of us without our asking, but when we ask, we acknowledge that we need His help, that He alone is God, and that we need His strength.  Are we humble enough to acknowledge this?

When we fail to do so, when we become too self-sufficient, when we coast spiritually - that's when we become like the disciples who fell asleep while Jesus prayed, and like Peter would deny the Lord three times.  

When we don't learn from the mistakes of history, we are doomed to repeat it.  

Peter would be restored in His relationship with Jesus, and would eventually die for his faith as he initially claimed he would.  He learned from his mistakes and put his faith, not in his own strength, but in Christ's.  We must do the same!



Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage: Jeremiah 34-36; Matthew 26:51-75

2 comments:

Pamela said...

26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?

Nothing is too hard for God. Even the sacrifice of Jesus was not too hard that it couldn't be done.

One theme that seems to be grabbing my attention lately is that my faith is maybe not as strong as I would like it to be. I can read that mountains will move with just words, or that nothing is too hard for God and yet I still doubt that God can and will do things. My pride holds some big things too tight, I think.

Conrad said...

Jeremiah 33:3 also stood out for me. Not only does the verse say that we are to call out to God, but that He will respond!