Jeremiah 30:12-17

Jeremiah 30:12-13

"For thus says the LORD: Your hurt is incurable,
and your wound is grievous.
There is none to uphold your cause,
no medicine for your wound,
no healing for you.
All your lovers have forgotten you;
they care nothing for you;
for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy,
the punishment of a merciless foe,
because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant.
Why do you cry out over your hurt?
Your pain is incurable.
Because your guilt is great,
because your sins are flagrant,
I have done these things to you.
Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured,
and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity;
those who plunder you shall be plundered,
and all who prey on you I will make a prey.
For I will restore health to you,
and your wounds I will heal,

declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast:
'It is Zion, for whom no one cares!'

I read this passage yesterday morning and what really struck me was actually out of the first couple of verses. In verses 12 and 13, I could almost feel God's heart breaking for His people through these words. It seems that in most passages like this, you really feel God's righteous anger towards the Israelites because they have turned from Him to follow other gods. But here, it wasn't just that God was angry about what they had done; He was genuinely grieved by the consequences they were experiencing as a result of their decisions. I really believe that God did not necessarily want to put His chosen people through all of that pain and heartache, but it is often through the pain that God is able to best get our attention. Plus, there is a promise at the end of the hurt. If they would only turn back to Him and follow God with all their hearts, he would be their God and they would be His people.

Are we really so different from the Israelites? When we are trapped in our sin, our hurts are incurable and our wounds are grievous too. There is nothing within ourselves that can save us from our sin. The difference though, between us and the Israelites, is that there now is medicine for our wounds, there is healing for us. Our healing is found in Jesus Christ who hung on the cross and took on the sins of the whole world.

The beginning part of the passage may not be the most conventional place to find encouragement in the Word, but it gives me just another small glimpse into the character of God and, for me, it re-affirms that a God who feels so deeply for His chosen people is the God I want to serve and live my life for!

Pride cometh before the fall....

Well...it certainly has been a while, hasn't it? I didn't realize how long it had been since I had last posted until I read my last entry and noticed the date. Not that I feel obligated to do this, but I certainly didn't intend to fall so far behind!

I feel that I could cover a lot of ground here, but I'm also tired and don't really feel like writing pages and pages of my innermost thoughts, so I'll just go over some more recent thoughts. The last several weeks, I've just felt a bit off. Kind of down, and not really in the Spirit. I spend some time in the Word every morning, but I often feel like I don't really give God the time that He deserves, and that affects pretty much every area of my life. I'm a lot more irritable and impatient at work and I tend to distance myself from the people I'm closest to. I've found myself getting more annoyed by things that wouldn't normally bother me so much. And then I feel like I'm not being a "good" Christian, whatever that means! I get so caught in this trap that I need to "perform" and "act" a certain way in order for God to love and accept me, when I know that's a lie! All God wants from me is my heart, broken and wretched as it is.

Tonight's Bible study was such a great heart check for me, because I realized that my attitude really has everything to do with pride. I find that I often compare myself to other people and then for whatever reason, I think that I'm somehow better at something than they are and think, "Oh, I could have done _____ so much better" and then I get annoyed at the fact that they didn't do things the way I would have! How conceited can I be?? I'm really not trying to beat myself up over this; I'm human and I'm going to make dumb mistakes. I'm just being honest about the sin in my heart.

But here's the encouraging part: Philippians 2:1-4 says So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

So once I start thinking about others above myself, I turn the spotlight off of Tiffany, my heart begins to change and thus my attitude improves! Not an easy task, I know, but it means that I can choose how to respond to situations. I do not have to feel depressed. I can choose to be humble and I can choose to love someone even when it's difficult. It's really all up to me (and you!), I just need to make the choice. I pray that I will choose in a godly manner!