Now is the time for Me to bring hardship on them, so they may be found....The shepherds of My people have lost their senses; they never thought to ask what the Eternal would have them do.....O Eternal I know our lives are in Your hands. It is not us to direct our own steps-we need You. Discipline me, Eternal One, but do so fairly. Hold back Your wrath or I'll be destroyed completely.
Observation
God allows hardship to bring us back to Him. Even those who gave their hearts passionately to Him once can lose their first love. It breaks God's heart that we would give ourselves to empty and meaningless trappings in this world, when we have known His goodness and experienced intimacy with Him. It is a slow fade, we gradually start taking Him for granted and stop asking Him what He thinks and wants. Can you Imagine a culture where everyone, including Pastors, have stopped asking God what He wants?
Jeremiah knows that he has also struggled with the sin of trying to do life on his own apart from God. He acknowledges his need for God as well as a need for discipline. Jeremiah knows that the discipline of The Lord will keep him from drifting away again. Jeremiah first asks for a fair discipline, then it seems like he rethinks the idea of fair, and asks God to hold back a little of the discipline due him.
Application
These verses are a great reminder of how God uses all things, even the painful stuff, to draw me close to Him. I need discipline from The Lord or I would turn from Him. I praise God for His mindfulness of me.
Prayer
Father, thank You for Your grace. You have forgiven my sin against You and have drawn me with loving kindness. Thank You for Your discipline, like Jeremiah I ask that You continue to discipline, but use mercy, so that I will not be broken. I love You.
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