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Jeremiah 20: 10-13
I hear the whisperings of many:
“Terror on every side!
Denounce! let us denounce him!”
All those who were my friends
are on the watch for any misstep of mine.
“Perhaps he will be trapped; then we can prevail,
and take our vengeance on him.”
But the LORD is with me, like a mighty champion:
my persecutors will stumble, they will not triumph.
In their failure they will be put to utter shame,
to lasting, unforgettable confusion.
O LORD of hosts, you who test the just,
who probe mind and heart,
Let me witness the vengeance you take on them,
for to you I have entrusted my cause.
Sing to the LORD,
praise the LORD,
For he has rescued the life of the poor
from the power of the wicked!
The Word of the Lord.
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Perhaps one of the most relatable, dynamic prophets of the Old Testament is Jeremiah. He’s arrestingly honest with the Lord as he experiences both highs and lows along his journey of faith.
When the Lord first called him into ministry, Jeremiah was young and idealistic, ready to change the world. Looking back over those days, he later writes:
“When I read your words, I devoured them! They became the joy and the happiness of my heart, because I bore your name O Lord, God of hosts!” (Jeremiah 15:16)
Many of us have been there. We endured a period of great excitement as we discovered the Lord. Serving Jesus put pep in our step; God filled our hearts with grace.
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Yet the same Jeremiah who “devoured” the words of the Lord later cries out, “You duped me, O LORD!” (Jeremiah 20:7).
Jeremiah was disheartened. He’d been betrayed by his friends and neighbors because they rejected the message of repentance that he spoke on God’s behalf. “Let us denounce him!” they say in our first reading.
They’re literally plotting to kill him.
Maybe we’ve been there, too. Life took a sudden or dark turn, and we began questioning our faith or God’s ability to protect us.
But in his darkest hour, Jeremiah’s faith won the day. He surrendered to the Lord’s plans, calling God his, “mighty champion.”
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Wherever we may be on our journey of faith, may Jeremiah intercede on our behalf, that God the “mighty champion” would reveal himself and strengthen us to do his will.
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Image credits: (1) Love This Pic (2) Jeremiah the Prophet, Michelangelo (3) Amazon.com, Notebook