Jeremiah 15:16 KJV
Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
A Ripening Process
Early in his fifty-year ministry in Cambridge, England, Charles Simeon (1759–1836) met a neighboring pastor, Henry Venn, and his daughters. After the visit, the daughters remarked how harsh and self-assertive the young man seemed. In response, Venn asked his daughters to pick a peach from the trees. When they wondered why their father would want the unripe fruit, he responded, “Well, my dears, it is green now, and we must wait; but a little more sun, and a few more showers, and the peach will be ripe and sweet. So it is with Mr. Simeon.”
Over the years Simeon did soften through God’s transforming grace. One reason was his commitment to read the Bible and pray every day. A friend who stayed with him for a few months witnessed this practice and remarked, “Here was the secret of his great grace and spiritual strength.”
Simeon in his daily time with God followed the practice of the prophet Jeremiah, who faithfully listened for God’s words. Jeremiah depended on them so much that he said, “When your words came, I ate them.” He mulled and chewed over God’s words, which were his “joy” and “heart’s delight” (Jeremiah 15:16).
If we too resemble a sour green fruit, we can trust that God will help to soften us through His Spirit as we get to know Him through reading and obeying the Scriptures.
Reflect & Pray
How has reading the Bible changed you? Why might you sometimes not read it?
God, the Scriptures feed me and protect me from sin. Help me to read them every day.
Insight
In Jeremiah 15:15–18, several metaphors vividly capture Jeremiah’s experience of his calling as a prophet. In verse 16, he uses the metaphor of eating to capture the idea of fully embracing and internalizing God’s words. Some scholars suggest that to “bear [God’s] name” in this context may allude to the shared name that results from marriage. In addition, the words joy and delight elsewhere in Jeremiah are always connected with wedding festivities (7:34; 16:9; 25:10; 33:11).
In Jeremiah 15:18, the prophet uses the metaphor of streambeds or wadis to capture his bewilderment at the stark contrast between his initial intimacy with God and his current anguish. Such streambeds in the summertime were often dried up and therefore unreliable sources of water. In this way, Jeremiah vividly captures a feeling of deep betrayal at experiencing God in this way, rather than as the everlasting “spring of living water” He’d described Himself as (2:13).
1 John 3:1 KJV
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Depths of Love
Three-year-old Dylan McCoy had just learned to swim when he fell through a rotted plywood covering into a forty-foot deep, stone-walled well in his grandfather’s backyard. Dylan managed to stay afloat in ten feet of water until his father went down to rescue him. Firefighters brought ropes to raise the boy, but the father was so worried about his son that he’d already climbed down the slippery rocks to make sure he was safe.
Oh, the love of a parent! Oh, the lengths (and depths) we will go for our children!
When the apostle John writes to believers in the early church who were struggling to find footing for their faith as false teaching swirled about them, he extends these words like a life-preserver: “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” (1 John 3:1). Naming believers in Jesus as “children” of God was an intimate and legal labeling that brought validity to all who trust in Him.
Oh, the lengths and depths God will go for His children!
There are actions a parent will take only for their child—like Dylan’s dad descending into a well to save his son. And like the ultimate act of our heavenly Father, who sent His only Son to gather us close to His heart and restore us to life with Him (vv. 5–6).
Reflect & Pray
When has God rescued you from a dark well of need? How have you seen Him bring you to a place of hope?
Oh, heavenly Father, thank You for reaching into the well of my need to rescue me and bring me back to You!
Insight
In 1 John 3:2, John reminds his “dear friends” of the return of Jesus with the phrase “when Christ appears.” The promise of Jesus’ physical return is a consistent theme in the New Testament and was shared by the Savior Himself (Matthew 16:27; Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26; John 14:1–3), then echoed by the angels following His ascension (Acts 1:11). This return is integral to our hope in Christ which carries us through the difficulties of life. In 1 John, however, the apostle’s focus isn’t on endurance in times of trial. Rather, he points us to the appearing of Jesus as the ultimate culmination of God’s plan for His children to be made fully like Him. Notice the pattern of John’s hopeful words: Christ shall appear, we shall see Him, and we’ll be finally and completely conformed to Him. When Jesus returns, God’s transforming work in us will be complete.
Numbers 10:10 KJV
Also in the day of your gladness, and in your solemn days, and in the beginnings of your months, ye shall blow with the trumpets over your burnt offerings, and over the sacrifices of your peace offerings; that they may be to you for a memorial before your God: I am the Lord your God.
Sound the Trumpets
“Taps” is a trumpet call played by the US military at the end of the day as well as at funerals. I was amazed when I read the unofficial lyrics and discovered that many of the verses end with the phrase “God is nigh” (God is near). Whether before the dark of each night settles in or while mourning the loss of a loved one, the lyrics offer soldiers the beautiful assurance that God is near.
In the Old Testament, trumpets were also a reminder to the Israelites that God was near. In the middle of celebrating the feasts and festivals that were part of the covenant agreement between God and the nation of Israel, the Jews were to “sound the trumpets” (Numbers 10:10). Blowing a trumpet was a reminder not only of God’s presence but also that He was available when they needed Him most—and He longed to help them.
Today, we still need reminders that God is near. And in our own style of worship, we too can call out to God in prayer and song. Perhaps our prayers can be thought of as trumpets asking God to help us. And the beautiful encouragement is that God always hears those calls (1 Peter 3:12). To each of our pleas, He responds with the assurance of His presence that strengthens and comforts us in the difficulties and sorrows of life.
Reflect & Pray
When have your prayers felt like calls for help? How does the reminder that God listens to our prayers encourage you?
Heavenly Father, thank You that You respond to my call for help and assure me of Your powerful presence and love.
Insight
The description of the trumpets in Numbers 10:1–10 marks a significant transition for the Israelites. After spending eleven months camped at Sinai where they received direction and instruction from God, they were now to continue their journey to Canaan, the land God promised to Abraham for his descendants (Genesis 17:8). They were to use the trumpets to call “the community together and for having the camps set out” (Numbers 10:2).
Throughout Israel’s history, trumpets and other instruments, such as animal horns, were used for various reasons: to signal movement, in war, to call the Israelites to assemble, and to mark festivals. For example, trumpets were used when the Israelites moved the ark of the covenant (1 Chronicles 13:7–8; 15:24) and when they dedicated and purified the temple (2 Chronicles 5:12–13; 29:26). The ark and temple were where God dwelt and met with the Israelite priests, and where He communicated with His people.
Hebrews 6:10 KJV
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
God of the Invisible
“Sometimes I feel as if I’m invisible. But I so want God to use me.”
Ann was tidying up the exercise room at the hotel I was visiting when we struck up a conversation. As we talked, I discovered she had an amazing story.
“I used to be a crack addict and prostitute living on the streets,” she said. “But I knew God wanted me to put down my pipe and walk with Him. One day years ago I knelt at Jesus’ feet, and He set me free.”
I thanked Ann for sharing what God had done for her and assured her she wasn’t invisible—He had used her in our conversation in a beautiful way to remind me of His power to transform lives.
God loves to use people others might overlook. The apostle Andrew isn’t as well known as his brother Peter, but the Bible recounts that “the first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon [Peter] and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’. . . . And he brought him to Jesus” (John 1:41–42).
Peter met Jesus through Andrew. When Andrew, one of John the Baptist’s disciples, learned about Jesus from John, he followed Jesus and believed—and immediately told his brother. Andrew’s quiet faithfulness had an impact that would shake the world.
God values faithful service over fame. He can use us powerfully wherever we are—even when no one is looking.
Reflect & Pray
Whose quiet faithfulness made a difference in your life? How can you serve God by serving someone else today?
Thank You for never overlooking me, Father! I’m thankful You can use me to make a difference wherever I am.
Insight
The term “Lamb of God” is unique to John. Twice in John 1, John the Baptist calls Jesus the “Lamb of God” (vv. 29, 36). Verse 29 includes the description “who takes away the sin of the world!” This is a reference to the sin offering prescribed in the law of Moses (see Leviticus 4), where a lamb was one of several animals used as a sacrifice.
This isn’t the only place where the apostle John refers to Jesus as a lamb. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is described as “the Lamb, who was slain” (5:12) and the Lamb who opens the seals (6:1, 3, 5, 7). The blood of the Lamb overcomes the enemy (12:11), and the names of those who believe in Christ are recorded in the Lamb’s book of life (13:8).
Ephesians 4:31 KJV
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
Dig It Up
When Rebecca’s brother and sister-in-law started having marriage problems, Rebecca prayed earnestly for their reconciliation. But they divorced. Then her sister-in-law took the children out of state and their dad didn’t protest. Rebecca never again saw the nieces she dearly loved. Years later she said, “Because of trying to handle this sadness on my own, I let a root of bitterness start in my heart, and it began to spread to my family and friends.”
The book of Ruth tells about a woman named Naomi who struggled with a heart of grief that grew into bitterness. Her husband died in a foreign land, and ten years later both her sons died. She was left destitute with her daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah (1:3–5). When Naomi and Ruth returned to Naomi’s home country, the whole town was excited to see them. But Naomi told her friends: “The Almighty has made my life very bitter. . . . The Lord has afflicted me” (vv. 20–21). She even asked them to call her “Mara,” meaning bitter.
Who hasn’t faced disappointment and been tempted toward bitterness? Someone says something hurtful, an expectation isn’t met, or demands from others make us resentful. When we acknowledge to ourselves and God what’s happening deep in our hearts, our tender Gardener can help us dig up any roots of bitterness—whether they’re still small or have been growing for years—and can replace them with a sweet, joyful spirit.
Reflect & Pray
What areas of life do you tend to become bitter about? What’s growing inside your heart that needs God’s loving care?
God, help me to see the goodness in life You’re always displaying. And dig up any root of bitterness in my heart that dishonors You.
Insight
The book of Ruth isn’t the only time we see the name Mara or Marah (bitter) in the Bible. In Exodus we read how the Israelites had just escaped slavery in Egypt when God miraculously parted the Red Sea. After the Israelites crossed the sea, He released the water so their Egyptian pursuers were swallowed up. The result? “When the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the Lord displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and put their trust in him and in Moses his servant” (14:31). Yet, three days later, the Israelites couldn’t find water and began to doubt Moses (and God). They found an oasis, but because its water was undrinkable, they named the place Marah. God instructed Moses to throw a piece of wood in the water and it immediately became sweet (15:22–25; see Numbers 33:8–9).
1 Corinthians 6:2 KJV
Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
Paper Crowns
After a holiday meal at my house, everyone opened party favors filled with candy, small toys, and confetti. But there was something else in the favors—a paper crown for each of us. We couldn’t resist trying them on, and we smiled at each other as we sat around the table. For just a moment, we were kings and queens, even if our kingdom was a dining room littered with the remnants of our dinner.
This sparked a memory of a Bible promise I don’t often think about. In the next life, all believers will share ruling authority with Jesus. Paul mentions this in 1 Corinthians 6 where he asks, “Do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world?” (v. 2). Paul referenced this future privilege because he wanted to inspire believers to settle disputes peacefully on earth. They had been suing each other and consequently harming the reputation of other believers in their community.
We become better at resolving conflict as the Holy Spirit produces self-control, gentleness, and patience within us. By the time Jesus returns and completes the Spirit’s work in our lives (1 John 3:2–3), we’ll be ready for our eventual role as “a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and . . . reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:10). Let’s hold on to this promise that glitters in Scripture like a diamond set in a crown of gold.
Reflect & Pray
How does the Holy Spirit influence your words and actions when you experience conflict? How does this affect those around you?
Almighty God, thank You for the wonderful future I have with You. Help me to look to You when it’s hard to cooperate with others.
Insight
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he gives his readers ways of thinking about judgment that implies more than crime and punishment. Making good judgments is more about our heart and humility than law. On one hand, Paul reasons, we aren’t even good judges of our own motives let alone the motives of others (4:1–5; 5:12). On the other hand, he didn’t want them to underestimate their capacities for good judgment in matters that might at first seem too difficult to resolve. For example, Paul saw it to be poor judgment to drag some disputes between believers in Jesus into public courts. While certain civil and criminal matters must be handled by the proper authorities, others could be handled by calm and discerning minds. Much can be learned by proving our faith—and settling differences—as we love others well as the Spirit guides us (6:1–8; John 13:35; 1 Corinthians 13:1–13).
Psalm 121:2 KJV
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.
LIFT UP YOUR EYES
The clouds hung low, blocking the horizon and limiting visibility to only a few hundred yards. The minutes dragged on. The effect on my mood was noticeable. But then, as afternoon approached, the clouds began to break, and I saw it: beautiful Pikes Peak, the most recognizable landmark of my city, flanked on each side by the mountain range.
A smile broke over my face. I considered that even our physical perspective—our literal line of sight—can affect our spiritual vision. And I was reminded of the psalmist singing, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains” (Psalm 121:1). Sometimes we simply need to lift our eyes a bit higher!
The psalmist pondered where his help came from, maybe because the hilltops around Israel were dotted with altars to pagan gods and often contained robbers. Or it could have been because the psalmist looked up beyond the hills to Mount Zion where the temple stood and remembered that the Maker of heaven and earth was his covenant God (v. 2).
Either way, to worship we must look up. We have to lift our eyes higher than our circumstances, higher than our troubles and trials, higher than the empty promises of the false gods of our day. Then we can see the Creator and Redeemer, the One who calls us by name. He’s the One who will “watch over your coming and going” today and forevermore (v. 8).
Reflect & Pray
How can you “look up” today—beyond your circumstances—to see God? What would it look like to call upon Him for the help you really need?
Dear Father, thank You that You’re the Creator and Keeper—the One who made the heavens and the earth and watches over me. Help me to lift my eyes higher to see You and to put my trust in You.
Insight
Psalm 121 is the second of the fifteen “songs of ascent” (Psalms 120–134) which were sung by Jewish pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem for the three great festivals each year (Deuteronomy 16:16): Unleavened Bread (Passover), Weeks (Firstfruits), and Tabernacles. As such, it isn’t surprising that they trust themselves to God’s protection from the dangers and difficulties of the road. Since most traveling was done on foot, Psalm 121:3 anticipates God’s protection from stumbling along the way.
Since most journeys by foot took several days, the people had confidence that while they slept along roads that could be dangerous (wild animals, highway robbers), their God didn’t sleep but was alert to their needs (v. 3). They sang of God’s around-the-clock protection: “the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night” (v. 6). This was the God they trusted in and would worship upon arriving in Jerusalem.
2 Corinthians 5:17 KJV
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Breaking the Cycle
David’s first beating came at the hands of his father on his seventh birthday, after he accidentally broke a window. “He kicked me and punched me,” David said. “Afterward, he apologized. He was an abusive alcoholic, and it’s a cycle I’m doing my best to end now.”
But it took a long time for David to get to this point. Most of his teen years and twenties were spent in jail or on probation, and in and out of addiction treatment centers. When it felt like his dreams were entirely dashed, he found hope in a Christ-centered treatment center through a relationship with Jesus.
“I used to be filled with nothing but despair,” David says. “Now I’m pushing myself in the other direction. When I get up in the morning, the first thing I tell God is that I’m surrendering my will over to Him.”
When we come to God with lives shattered, whether by others’ wrongdoing or by our own, God takes our broken hearts and makes us new: “If anyone is in Christ, . . . the old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Christ’s love and life breaks into the cycles of our past, giving us a new future (vv. 14–15). And it doesn’t end there! Throughout our lives, we can find hope and strength in what God has done and continues to do in us—each and every moment.
Reflect & Pray
Where were you headed when you received Jesus as your Savior? How does it help to know that God continues to shape your life to increasingly resemble His?
Dear God, thank You for interrupting the downward trajectory of my life and making me a new creation! Make me ever more like You.
Insight
At the heart of the concept of becoming one with Jesus is His work of reconciliation in us. In 2 Corinthians 5, Paul weaves several themes together—life, love, new creation, and the ministry of reconciliation—all framed by a call to act with urgency. It’s because of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that we can be reconciled to God. Those who accept His gift of reconciliation should “no longer live for themselves” (v. 15). Instead, we’re compelled to view everyone differently (v. 16), as people in dire need of Jesus’ reconciliation. And what is this reconciliation? God will no longer “[count] people’s sins against them” (v. 19). With urgency, Paul tells us that we’re now Christ’s ambassadors of reconciliation and says, “We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God” (v. 20).
Deuteronomy 31:22
Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel.
What’s Your Song?
Most Americans knew little about Alexander Hamilton—until 2015, when Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote his hit musical Hamilton. Now schoolchildren know Hamilton’s story by heart. They sing it to each other on the bus and at recess. He’s their favorite founding father.
God knows the power of music, and He told Moses to “write down this song and teach it to the Israelites and have them sing it” (Deuteronomy 31:19). God knew that long after Moses was gone, when He had brought Israel into the Promised Land, they would rebel and worship other gods. So He told Moses, “This song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten by their descendants” (v. 21).
Songs are nearly impossible to forget, so it’s wise to be selective about what we sing. Some songs are just for fun, and that’s fine, but we benefit from songs that boast in Jesus and encourage our faith. One of the ways we “[make] the most of every opportunity” is when we speak “to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.” So “sing and make music from your heart to the Lord” (see Ephesians 5:15–19).
Songs can be an indicator of the direction of our heart. Do the words make much of Jesus? Do we sing them wholeheartedly? What we sing will influence what we believe, so choose wisely and sing loudly.
Reflect & Pray
What should you look for in a worship song? Is there a favorite song you can sing more often? Why?
Father, this song is my prayer to You. (Sing your favorite.)
Insight
The final chapters of the book of Deuteronomy may seem a strange way to conclude the books of the law (Genesis–Deuteronomy). In Deuteronomy 31:27, Moses says, “If you have been rebellious against the Lord while I am still alive and with you, how much more will you rebel after I die!” Then he gives the people the song in 32:1–43, which contains a litany of dire warnings and predictions about Israel’s past and future rebellion against God. But Moses also said that the words in this song and in the entire book “are your life” (32:47) because they’d remind them of the goodness of God.
Psalm 138:7 KJV
Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me.
Our Compassionate God
The winter night was cold when someone threw a large stone through a Jewish child’s bedroom window. A star of David had been displayed in the window, along with a menorah to celebrate Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights. In the child’s town of Billings, Montana, thousands of people—many of them believers in Jesus—responded to the hateful act with compassion. Choosing to identify with the hurt and fear of their Jewish neighbors, they pasted pictures of menorahs in their own windows.
As believers in Jesus, we too receive great compassion. Our Savior humbled Himself to live among us (John 1:14), identifying with us. On our behalf, He, “being in very nature God . . . made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (Philippians 2:6–7). Then, feeling as we feel and weeping as we weep, He died on a cross, sacrificing His life to save ours.
Nothing we struggle with is beyond our Savior’s concern. If someone “throws rocks” at our lives, He comforts us. If life brings disappointments, He walks with us through despair. “Though the Lord is exalted, he looks kindly on the lowly; though lofty, he sees them from afar” (Psalm 138:6). In our troubles, He preserves us, stretching out His hand against both “the anger of [our] foes” (v. 7) and our own deepest fears. Thank You, God, for Your compassionate love.
Reflect & Pray
In what areas of your life do you need God’s compassion? How can you show His care and love to others?
O God, I thank You for understanding my struggles and comforting me with loving care. Remind me always to share Your compassion with others.
Insight
In Psalm 138:4–5, David calls the kings of the earth to praise God. The surrounding verses explain the reasons he issues this call: God is loving and faithful and answers those who call (vv. 1–3); He’s kind and compassionate to “the lowly”; He saves those who are oppressed (vv. 6–8).
David’s call to the kings of the earth in verses 4–5 could be considered a hopeful calling. In the days of the Old Testament, kings (outside of Israel) didn’t praise God. They were, more often than not, rebellious and resistant to Him (see Psalms 2 and 48). In Revelation, however, David’s hope is fulfilled as the kings of the earth bring their riches to the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:24).
