Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A prosperous life”
Our Bible verse for today: “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by the Jordan?” Jeremiah 12:5 (NIV)
Our thought for today: “We need God.”
Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who had been given a seemingly impossible mission by God. He was to spend his life preaching an unpopular message to a nation of people who were completely unreceptive. It was a message of coming judgment and punishment from God if the people did not repent and return to Him. At first Jeremiah would simply be ignored by them, but eventually his ministry efforts would result in him being ridiculed, isolated, persecuted, beaten, and imprisoned.
While Jeremiah was experiencing all of that at the hands of Jewish people who were living far from God, those people themselves were living what seemed to be a prosperous and blessed life. So in 12:1-6 Jeremiah lodged a complaint with God about the apparent unfairness of it all. He noted that these wicked people were living lives of prosperity and ease, their vineyards were flourishing, their businesses were successful, and they were living happy lives in the midst of their great sinfulness. All the while Jeremiah, this faithful prophet of the Lord, was suffering rejection and deprivation.
In response, most of the rest of the book records God describing the judgment and punishment that was coming for them. But in 12:5 God used a rhetorical question as a means of guiding and encouraging Jeremiah. “If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets of Jordan?”
The question was designed to remind Jeremiah of how much he needed the protection and power of God in order to accomplish the things God wanted him to do. In his own power Jeremiah could not do this. The assignment was too big, the challenges too tough. Jeremiah was struggling already and he was just getting started. But working with God, relying on His power and His guidance, Jeremiah would successfully accomplish everything God had planned for him.
That’s true for us too. There is no challenge too big, no obstacle too high, no problem too difficult that we cannot handle as long as we are in the center of God’s will and relying on Him to help us.
Whatever it is you’re facing today, rely on God to help you. With God’s help you can prevail.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 