Pastor’s Bible Reading Schedule: Jeremiah 3-5
Devotional Thought:
These chapters are chapters of revival. Revival is not something spooky or profoundly supernatural in nature, but rather revival is allowing the Spirit of God to once again have control of our thinking and behavior. Revival is nothing more than the child of God getting back to what is normal Christianity. It is getting back to the basic design of complete dependence upon the Lord. It is renouncing the sin of idolatry, most often humanism that has crept into our lives. The child of God does not need to be addicted to some dark depravity in order to need revival. When the child of God thinks he can run his own life, independent of God’s Spirit and God’s word, he is in need of revival. When having devotions or sitting in a church service and the Spirit of God points out an area that has not been yielded to the control of the Holy Spirit, we need revival in that area. When we refuse to return to the Lord in that area, we often find more and more areas of our lives being controlled by the flesh. In these passages we find the Lord pleading with the Jews to return unto Him. He desires their fellowship and the obedience that allows a parent to bless their children. Jeremiah 4:3 God says, “…break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.” The longer we live dependent upon the flesh in any area of our lives, the harder our heart gets to the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in that area. Some Christians have convinced themselves that they are a pretty good Christian because they have lived selfishly so long in an area of their life that they no longer feel guilty or convicted about it. What a dangerous place for the child of God to be. Because Proverbs 14:12 says, “there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends thereof are the ways of death.” Many Christians self-destruct trying to run their own lives rather than living the life God called them to live. They need to break up the hardened and unplanted parts of their hearts that have been hardened through selfish living. I am convinced that we all create these areas of our hearts from time to time and we must beg for God to expose them and help us to see them so we can break them up. The second part of that verse says, “sow not among thorns.” We must stop trying to bear fruit from the flesh. Paul makes it clear that the flesh profits nothing and in our flesh, apart from God, we can do nothing. (John 15) Romans 12:3 exhorts the Christian to not think of himself more highly than he ought to think. We struggle with these fabricated ideas of our own spirituality that are often rooted in striving to convince others that we are spiritual rather than striving to convince God. He knows our true spiritual conditions and He wants us in fellowship with Him. He desires this so He can bless our lives and produce in us the abundant life. Oh how we throw away potential by thinking we know better than what God has said. My admonition this morning is to look at your heart honestly and ask God to expose any fallow ground that needs to be broken up and return to the Lord.
Personal Requests:
• Lord, please help to be honest with my own heart. I know that it is deceitful, but I want the truth of God’s word to penetrate deep and break up any fallow ground that has been created. I want a heart that is sensitive to your leadership and control.
• Lord, thank you for your patience, long suffering, and forbearance with me. I desire for others to see Jesus in me. I desire to walk in fellowship with you and to speak freely and openly with you. I do not want anything between my soul and my Savior.
• Lord, please help me to show that same patience while working with others and with those you bring into my life. Thank you for forgiveness and revival and the joy that brings to my heart.