Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 119:97-144; Jeremiah 23:1-8; John 6:1-14; Romans 3:21-26
It’s easy for most of us to remember a difficult time from our past when God was really there for us. The memory of that moment has probably sustained us many times over the years as it has given us the assurance that God has been there for us when we’ve really needed God in the past. While the thought of God’s activity in our past is certainly very comforting, today’s passage from Jeremiah takes the experience of that memory and urges us to go one step further. It encourages us to take that past experience and project it into the future. In speaking to the Israelites who were in the midst of their own experience of exile - and knowing of their tendency to nostalgically turn back to their days of Exodus from Egypt to draw encouragement - Jeremiah tells the people: "So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:7-8). That passage reminds me of the importance of keeping our relationship with God rooted in not just in one tense (the past tense) but all three (past, present, and future tenses!). Perhaps you are wrestling with a challenging set of circumstances in your life today. If so, I would encourage you to pick up the spirit found in Jeremiah’s words and do two things: first, give thanks for the ways in which God has strengthened and protected you in the past; and second, in the midst of your challenges trust that a sense of return and restoration lies before you. May that knowledge bring you strength and comfort today, tomorrow, and always. Til next time…
It’s easy for most of us to remember a difficult time from our past when God was really there for us. The memory of that moment has probably sustained us many times over the years as it has given us the assurance that God has been there for us when we’ve really needed God in the past. While the thought of God’s activity in our past is certainly very comforting, today’s passage from Jeremiah takes the experience of that memory and urges us to go one step further. It encourages us to take that past experience and project it into the future. In speaking to the Israelites who were in the midst of their own experience of exile - and knowing of their tendency to nostalgically turn back to their days of Exodus from Egypt to draw encouragement - Jeremiah tells the people: "So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land" (Jeremiah 23:7-8). That passage reminds me of the importance of keeping our relationship with God rooted in not just in one tense (the past tense) but all three (past, present, and future tenses!). Perhaps you are wrestling with a challenging set of circumstances in your life today. If so, I would encourage you to pick up the spirit found in Jeremiah’s words and do two things: first, give thanks for the ways in which God has strengthened and protected you in the past; and second, in the midst of your challenges trust that a sense of return and restoration lies before you. May that knowledge bring you strength and comfort today, tomorrow, and always. Til next time…
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