Sun.’s Devo - God is Faithful to his Word

Read: Jeremiah 42:1-44:23; 2 Timothy 2:1-21; Psalm 92:1-93:5; Proverbs 26:3-5 Johanan and his men went to Jeremiah to ask him to pray for them and ask God what they should do. He told them that if they stayed in the land, God would protect them but if they went to Egypt, they would be doomed. The death they ran from would catch up with them in Egypt. The Babylonians would come there and do to them what they did to the people of Jerusalem. In spite of Jeremiah’s warning, they refused to listen and went to Egypt. Jeremiah went with them and when they entered the city of Tahpanhes in Egypt Jeremiah took some large rocks and buried them under the pavement stones at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace. He told the people that Nebuchadnezzar who they were running from would come and set his throne over these stones that he had hidden. The king of Babylon would come and do to this city what they had feared. He would bring death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity and war to those destined for war. Nebuchadnezzar would take some of them back to Babylon and burn down their temples to their gods. Jeremiah continued his warning. Only a handful of them would survive to return. It was the women who burned incense to the idols and their husbands stood up for them. The women answered that they would not listen to Jeremiah. They would continue to offer incense to the Queen of Heaven just as they had always done. They had prospered when they did and stopped prospering when they had stopped. Their husbands knew what they were doing and refused to make them stop. So Jeremiah told them all that God saw them burning incense to idols in Judah and that was why he destroyed it. In 2 Timothy, Paul encourages usy to be strong in Christ. He gives us the example of a soldier, an athlete and a farmer. As a soldier we must focus on the mission and not get side-tracked by everyday life. As an athlete, we must follow the rules that God set for us in his Word. As a farmer, we should be the first ones to enjoy the fruit of our labor. Above all we must remember that Jesus was raised from the dead. This is the good news. Even though they had chained Paul to keep him from spreading this truth, the word of God cannot be chained. In God’s kingdom everything is upside down. We die to live and suffer in this life to reign in the next. If we deny him, he will deny us and even if we are unfaithful, he is always faithful. He reminded them to stop fighting over words and having useless arguments. All this only hurt the testimony of Christ. Lies spread like cancer, but the truth stands firm. He admonished us to keep our lives pure so God can use us for his glory. Lord, may our lives bring you glory. May we read your Word and obey.