Jeremiah 20:7-11
7 O Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, “Violence and destruction!”
For the word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my close friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble;
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
Have you ever felt serving the Lord is not always easy? Of course, we all feel that way at some point in our spiritual journey. One man who understands that the Walk with God is full of trials and tribulations is the Prophet Jeremiah. Through the Prophet Jeremiah, the Lord told the people of Judah that they had forsaken him, and judgment was eminent.
Because the Judahites refused to repent, God’s plan was for the Babylonians in the North to take over their land. God’s judgment would fall on Judah because she had broken His covenant, and Jeremiah was chosen as the bearer of bad news. For many years, Jeremiah had been prophesying the future fall of Judah and the reasons for which that fall would occur, but over time his words fell on deaf ears. Moreover, people began to ridicule and violently protest Jeremiah’s prophecy as he mentions in a prayer to the Lord here:
“I hear many whispering, ‘Terror on every side! Report him! Let’s Report him! All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, ‘Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.” (20:10)
As I fumbled around this morning trying to decide which passage to write about, I grabbed an old pencil out of the jar at random, and on this pencil the quote, “Serve the Lord with Gladness,” was written. It was at that point I knew what I needed to write about. Many of us do things within the church and throughout our daily lives that we feel are necessary to serve God. To be a good Christian takes so much effort that sometimes it can feel like work. When you go out today, think about the daily things you do for God, and most importantly when you go out and do them, be sure to “Serve the Lord with Gladness.”
Brady Overstreet
