Reading
SAA Notes
Broken pots – a fitting symbol for our lives. The Apostle Paul takes up this thought in a positive light in 2 Corinthians 4:7 “we have this treasure in jars of clay …”. Notice how depressed Jeremiah feels in chapter 20. When you feel likewise, what comfort and light can Paul’s words bring you?
SJA Notes
* Gracious God, please teach us today from Your word.
“But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me.”
We see in this passage the full gamut of human emotion raging through Jeremiah. There are these two very distinct coin-sides of his emotional state.
On one, he acknowledges the power of the Lord.
And on the other,
“Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let us not be blessed!”
God knows the pain we go through in life. He experienced as a human all that life is when Jesus, God in the Person of the Son, walked this earth.
The gift of faith that God brings us is so important.
We cannot help ourselves, because life is hard and can be without hope on our own.
God’s gift of faith allows us to grasp hold of the reality of who God is and who we are.
Let us not be discouraged at the hard words and dark emotion we read here in Jeremiah. They are a true reflection of our own experiences, they are valuable in our walking with the Lord toward glory.
* Father God,
Sometimes we see You very clearly. Sometimes our eyesight grows dim.
Thank You for Your gift of faith. Something not of our own, but of You!
You are so good to us. While we were still enemies You came outside the camp and drew us back in. You left the fold to rescue the lost sheep. In Jesus You suffered, became curse, bearing Your just wrath – So that we could be saved.
Hallelujah, what a Saviour!
Amen.