Fri.’s Devo - Jeremiah

Read: Jer. 1:1-2:30;Phil. 4:1-23; Ps. 75:1-10; Pr. 24:17-20 Today we start the book of Jeremiah. Jeremiah was a young man who started his ministry under king Josiah, a good king of Judah. Jeremiah lets us see into his life and his insecurities of his age. God encourages him by touching his lips and proclaiming that He is putting His words into Jeremiah’s mouth. Jeremiah sees pictures in his mind that God interprets for him like rods of almond trees and boiling pots. Though Josiah was a good king who delayed God’s judgment, he came after Manasseh who had caused the nation to live in so much sin and idolatry. God had to punish. Jeremiah’s message was not one of hope, but of judgment. God told him to not be afraid of the faces of the people but to be strong. The people would not like him but God would defend and protect him. He told them they had committed two evils: they had forsaken God, the fountain of living waters, and they had hewed out cisterns that were broken and couldn’t hold water. The living waters are the Holy Spirit. The cisterns were their hearts. Their hearts were so broken and hardened they couldn’t hold His spirit. In the New Testament Jesus explains it as trying to put new wine in old wineskins. It would crack them. They couldn’t hold God’s presence in their hearts. There are so many great promises worth memorizing in Philippians 4, I don’t know where to start. Lord, soften our hearts to hold Your Spirit and let our minds meditate on what is honest, true, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.