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18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. 19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?") 20 "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." 21 For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? 1 O that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears, so that I might weep day and night for the slain of my poor people! (Jeremiah 8:18-9:1 NRSV)
Wrong decisions bring consequences. To wander away from God leads to big losses, personal and spiritual. The people of God many times in their history chose wrongly; choosing other gods or selfish ways, they found themselves out of God's favor and as a result suffered great losses; sometimes even food and water. And it fell to the prophet to preach the truth to win the people back, and to pray to God for His mercy for these actions. One of the most compassionate and emotional prophets was Jeremiah, and from this passage we see why they called him the "weeping prophet."
Dear Friend, you and I have made wrong choices in our lives, and some of us saw the consequences of those actions. We would have liked to have blamed God for them, but it was our own choosing that got us into trouble. Someone once wrote that perfect song, "Nobody's Fault but Mine." Still, the hurt and pain was still there. As the prophet wrote, his joy and grief were with him and he was heartsick for the situation. The people prayed aloud asking where God could possibly be? The true response would have been where have i been; what had I done, that got me into this situation? The prophet could only pray for God to be merciful again, to His people. And he soon realized that all he could do was to cry with and for his people.
This passage comes towards the end of the passages for the week that began with a call for us to win all people to God. And that victory can only happen when people surrender themselves completely and wholeheartedly, away from passion and pleasure to the way of life of God. Our role is like that of the prophets, to speak the word of God, a loving, return-to-me invitation, and it has to be done soon. We have a responsibility to prayer, and to witness with a life that shows that we can live differently and away from the powerful forces of temptation and sin. Only then will we see the change God desires in this world.
PRAYER: Awesome God, I desire to be in the number of those who belong to You. I want to speak the prophetic word of Yours to win those who have wandered off. The cries of those who are lost, or have lost loved ones grows with each day. Hear our prayers and restore us back into the fullness of Your love. This we pray in Christ Jesus' strong name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! Be a prophet of hope today.
Receive my blessings of love,
Pastor Eradio Valverde
