Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
The prophet Jeremiah wrote those words in the midst of a plea for God to intervene and protect him from persecution. On one hand he was suffering for the name of God. On the other, his purest delight and sustenance came from God. There is immeasurable pleasure and joy in God that outweighs any human hardship.
I remind myself of this. I am not persecuted (and don't know that I ever really have come close to the real sense of the word. I have been laughed at and shunned by those hostile to Christianity. I have never suffered for it.) I do know the hard side of things. I often have to deal with people in their worst places, sharing intimacies of confession and witnessing tragedy and sin's horrid destruction on a vivid emotional and personal scale. Jeremiah did so as he literally watched Jerusalem crash around him due to Judah's sin. And yet He could find sustenance and joy in his relationship with God. He went back to the core and the center to find strength and peace.
That is where I go. That is why any neglect of this daily, serious investment of time in God's Word ultimately results in loss for me. I have to have it in order to lift the rubble of destruction for another day. I gain the insight of the prophet this morning, and with his example firmly in my mind, I will feast on the Word of the Lord and find great joy there today. Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, Lord Jesus, for I am called by Your name.
Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O Lord, God of hosts. Jeremiah 15:16
The prophet Jeremiah wrote those words in the midst of a plea for God to intervene and protect him from persecution. On one hand he was suffering for the name of God. On the other, his purest delight and sustenance came from God. There is immeasurable pleasure and joy in God that outweighs any human hardship.
I remind myself of this. I am not persecuted (and don't know that I ever really have come close to the real sense of the word. I have been laughed at and shunned by those hostile to Christianity. I have never suffered for it.) I do know the hard side of things. I often have to deal with people in their worst places, sharing intimacies of confession and witnessing tragedy and sin's horrid destruction on a vivid emotional and personal scale. Jeremiah did so as he literally watched Jerusalem crash around him due to Judah's sin. And yet He could find sustenance and joy in his relationship with God. He went back to the core and the center to find strength and peace.
That is where I go. That is why any neglect of this daily, serious investment of time in God's Word ultimately results in loss for me. I have to have it in order to lift the rubble of destruction for another day. I gain the insight of the prophet this morning, and with his example firmly in my mind, I will feast on the Word of the Lord and find great joy there today. Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, Lord Jesus, for I am called by Your name.
