Scripture text for Tuesday, March 9th, 2010: Jeremiah 1:1-3:5
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“‘My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water,’” (Jer. 2:13).
God was speaking through Jeremiah to the people of Jerusalem (Jer. 2:1) because the people had turned away from Him, the One and Only Living God and prostituted themselves to false gods, “(Yet they are not gods at all), (2:11b). The Israelites were worshipping idols that their hands had made and allying themselves with nations they thought would help them (Assyria and Egypt). Though God remembered the devotion of their youth (2:2), they strayed far from Him after Kings David and Solomon. They had forsaken their Creator to pursue worthless images, only crying out to Him in times of trouble (2:27c).
Today, we don’t make gods of wood, stone or metals, but often we do idolize false gods. Anything we pursue more than the Lord is an idol, a false god. I think we all have done this at one time or another. It could be something good and necessary, just taken out of balance. Could be work—pursuing someone’s approval, a promotion, status, a big payoff. It could be money—constantly working, investing, buying & selling to get more. For me, it has been fitness and a slim body. In college, I drank too much water, way too much water (about 4 gallons each day). Why? I found it made me lose weight and I liked that. I was pursuing as thin body as I could get. It worked, while also getting me into major surgery and nearly killing me. One thing I learned is that every other “god”, which is really no god at all, pulls us further away from the Author of life and the giver of abundant life. Instead, they drain us of the life, joy, strength and peace that the Lord gives us when we worship and pursue Him. These idols provide no help or answer to our struggles; instead, they are often the source of our stresses. God is not a last resort, a bandage in our troubles. On the contrary, Christ is life (Col.3:4) itself, “for in him we live and move and have our being,” (Acts 17:28).
What about you—are you pursuing something more than God himself? Call it what it is, a false god, and turn completely to the One and Only True God.
Lord, help me to pursue You with all I am. Thank You for first pursuing me! Praise Your Holy Name!
Devotion prepared by Diane Kelley