07/05/2011 - LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF JEREMIAH

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“The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin” (Jeremiah 1:1)
All of us, Christians, are appointed by the Lord to exercise a ministry and we must pray to find out which one it is. We aren’t called to keep our arms crossed. Like Jeremiah, who was ordained before he was even formed in his mother’s womb (verse 5), we had the eyes of the Lord over us when we were still an unformed substance; (Psalm 139:16). Now, if we refuse to do His will and if we give in to sinful deeds, He won’t be able to reveal His project to us because He will neither use anyone that isn’t willing to know The Truth nor will He turn them into one of His servants.
We need to go through the narrow Gate and the difficult Way for the Almighty God to reveal Himself to us and make us know the mission we’ve been assigned with (Matthew 7:13). In His infinite wisdom, our Father calls those He wants to fulfil His plans and trains them to that end. It’s up to us to find out His plan for our lives!
Jeremiah even pleaded not to be called because he was a youth (Jeremiah 1:6), but the Lord told him he would be sent as a Prophet for the nations (his ministry was six fold, actually): his duty was to pluck up, pull down, destroy, build and plant. That was a very disturbing task for him because he had, among other things, to prophesy against Judah saying that its people would be kept captive; he also had to tell them how long their bondage would last. That’s why he wasn’t accepted by the king; he was imprisoned by the princes and cast into a dungeon (Chapter 38:6). On top of that, one of the scrolls he had written and read in the temple was burnt by King Jehoiakim (Chapter 36: 28).
That servant might’ve gone through so many trials! Likewise, our ministry doesn’t always go smooth and peacefully today. Even so, we must seek God to know His plans for our lives because according to what is written in the Bible regarding the lesson on the branch of an almond tree, our Lord said to Prophet Jeremiah that He watches over His Word (Jeremiah 1:11-12).
King Zedekiah turned to Jeremiah once in order to know what was going to happen to him because the Chaldeans were about to besiege Jerusalem. The Prophet of the Lord actually gave him some advice, but that ruler preferred to ignore the divine instructions. So he had his eyes blinded, all of his children were murdered before him and all the princes of Judah were also exterminated because he didn’t listen to Prophet Jeremiah’s counselling (Jeremiah 21). That shows us that we must never trifle with the prophecy delivered to us from a true servant of God.
Those who do the will of our Father are rewarded by His favor whatever the circumstance. Jeremiah was treated with benevolence by the Chaldeans as King Nebuchadnezzar has commanded (Jeremiah 39:11-18). In fact, Prophet Jeremiah’s loyalty to the Lord made his enemies recognize that there was another Spirit in him – and that’s also true for everybody that serves the Almighty God. So, my brethren, do all your best to be a servant of God at all times!
In Christ, with love,
R. R. Soares