Episode 47: Jeremiah 6:16
Transcription
Today’s verse is Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the Lord says:
“Stand at the crossroads and look;
ask for the ancient paths,
ask where the good way is, and walk in it,
and you will find rest for your souls.
But you said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Let’s pray together.
God, there is a siege happening here. There is anger, there is bitterness, there is fear, there is rebellion. Terror rains down on the people; they don’t know where to turn. Everywhere is conflicting information and new anxiety. They don’t know who to trust; everything they’ve ever believed has failed them. They have nothing left. They are hungry and thirsty. They are stretched to the absolute limit of the human condition.
God, this feels like today. This feels like our reality. And it’s a hard one. We wish it wasn’t this way. We wish that there wasn’t this brokenness in the world, this brokenness in our lives, this brokenness in ourselves. We despair that anything can ever be made well again. We are even angry with you, yelling our rage to the heavens, that this isn’t fair. Our sin shouldn’t be worth this. We try our best and doesn’t that count for anything?
But here’s what I want to learn, God. I want to learn You. I want to know Your response. I want to understand Your feelings. Because I think that when we sorrow and feel pain, even when it is caused by our own sin, I think that You ache for that pain, sharing in our misery. The tears in Your eyes are deeper, more plentiful, and fall more frequently, because You truly understand the cost. The cost You took upon Yourself. I know You share in this hurt with us because You sent Your Son to die and He suffered every agony of every human soul. Thank You, Jesus.
And You don’t stop there. God, we don’t just have a one and done sacrifice that saves us by the skin of our teeth. We have a relationship with You, we have a guide through the troubled waters of our world. Oh, help us to see You. Help us to reach out for You. Help us to accept and submit to Your ways. We can’t do it on our own, so walk with us. Stoop down impossibly low and gather us in Your tender arms, leading us with love and truth. Wear down the gears of our stubborn independence. Wash away the walls of our defiant rebelling humanity.
Help me to ask for You. Help me to desire Your control in my life. Help me to hear Your voice. And when You stand there, telling me where to look, urging me forward with a desperate desire to be united with me, may I run to You. May I seek You. May I not grieve You any further.
We can be so caught up in trying to make decisions, trying to earn favor, trying to avoid pain, trying, trying, trying, that we don’t realize You already made a way. It’s a hard, narrow way, but it is there. Let us walk in it, through every dip and furrow, struggling to every mountaintop, being pulled up by the roots You placed there for our benefit. And let us be grateful that You guide us, calling us on, urging us forward. Where is the good way, Father? Where is Your ancient path?
I am tired and look for rest. I seek ease for the worries of my soul. I need only rest in Your word, in Your love, in Your Spirit’s counsel, in the support system You’ve placed for my benefit. Let me see it. Let me find it. Don’t let me run from You, seeking my own way. Don’t let me be deceived by shinier paths, seemingly easier roads. The only one I want is Yours. When the confusing mists rise and the crisscrossing forks double back and the deceiving guides tempt me somewhere else, help me to keep going.
I will walk in it. I will not make the mistakes of the past. I will stumble and I will fall, but pick me back up, give me the courage and the strength to endure. And bless me with Your presence as a companion along the way. I can want for nothing else. Help to desire not so much my ease, but my true self, forged by Your hands in the wilderness of this empty and troubled world. That is the true rest, union with You. Now and forevermore.
Pray this with me for your lives, friends, wherever you are at on the journey. We desire to go with God and Him only. Because then we will never fail to arrive at the destination we all long for, and find the everlasting peace we so desperately seek. Today, reach out for His hand, listen for His voice, search for His face.
I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
