Distance

Linda Pollock October 26, 2022 0 0

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Jeremiah 14: 22 (NRSVA)

22 Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
    Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
    We set our hope on you,
    for it is you who do all this.

We know what it’s like to feel deep remorse, to feel ashamed of our behaviour, to believe that we have disappointed God. We may think that God couldn’t possibly forgive us, couldn’t still love us and, little by little, we distance ourselves from the One Who names us His beloved.

Jeremiah, indeed, all the stories of the Hebrews, reveal that God’s people then and now will make mistakes, will refuse to conform to God's ways. The good news, even in the Old Testament, is that God’s faithfulness to His covenant depends upon God, not us — and these ancient stories show us that God forgives His wayward, stubborn children. Like those ancients, our hope rests in the God Who never breaks His covenant, the God Whose love is steadfast. Judgement is not about us getting our ‘comeuppance’ for our sin, it is about God restoring us, healing us, encouraging us to wallow in His love as, by His grace, we start again to live humbly in, through and for Him over and over again.

PRAYER:

O God, I’ve done it again. I’ve wandered far from You and the purposes You have for me. I’m sorry, forgive me and restore me. Grant that I might trust Your word of deliverance, of reconciliation, as I humbly offer myself to You again. In the Name of Christ Jesus, I pray. Amen.