Corona Devo 1642

Cleaning under the bathroom sink the other day, I found an old hand towel in the back of the cupboard that had been there a long time.  So long, that when I pulled it from the cupboard, the area of the hand towel that I was grasping disintegrated in my hand.  

That hand towel was (literally) rotting and falling apart, and while I am a saver at heart...that towel was good for nothing.  

I've never had that happen before, but when I read my Bible today, I realized that God had given me an under-the-sink image to understand and prove His Word more clearly.  

You see, the people in Jeremiah's day had strayed far from the Lord and His ways.  People were wicked, and the wicked were prospering.  It bothered Jeremiah, and he came to the Lord about it:

You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you.  Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all the faithless live at ease?  (2) You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.  You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.  ~Jeremiah 12:1-2

~~~

Jeremiah was telling the Lord about the spiritual deceit of God's people.  But there is nothing that the Lord does not see, and God did not need told about the sin of His people, He knew, and He saw what the people were doing to all of the good plans that God had for them.  God also knew what their consequences would be, and so He answered Jeremiah:

Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland. (11) It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.  

(12) Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the Lord will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.  

(13) They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.  They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the Lord’s fierce anger.”  ~Jeremiah 12:10-13

People simply were not seeking the Lord, and He knew it.  Can we make any comparisons between Jeremiah's world then, and ours today?  

Yes.

People today have strayed far from the Lord and His ways.  People are wicked, and the wicked are prospering.  

I pray that it bothers us, and (like Jeremiah), that we can come to the Lord about it:

Why does the way of the wicked prosper?  Why do all the faithless live at ease?  (2) You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.  You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.  ~Jeremiah 12:1-2

I'm not even sure that we can pretend to claim that God's Name is "always on their lips"...but I can confirm that many in our Nation and world are now rotting and falling apart.  They are good for nothing.

 But there is nothing that the Lord does not see, and He knows what the people are doing to all of the good plans that God has for them.  He sees the progression and the procession, and the deterioration.

Remember the hand towel that had sat under my sink so long that it was now disintegrating, rotting, falling apart, and good for nothing?  

God's given us an under-the-sink image to understand and prove His Word to us more clearly.  Read on to see how the Lord demonstrates the disintegration of His (beloved) people because they sought themselves instead of Him:

This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy a linen sash and put it on, but do not wash it.” (2) So I bought the sash as the Lord directed me, and I put it on.  

(3) Then the Lord gave me another message: (4) “Take the sash you are wearing, and go to the Euphrates River.  Hide it there in a hole in the rocks.” (5) So I went and hid it by the Euphrates as the Lord had instructed me. 

(6) A long time afterward the Lord said to me, “Go back to the Euphrates and get the sash I told you to hide there.” (7) So I went to the Euphrates and dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was rotting and falling apart. The sash was good for nothing..  ~Jeremiah 13:1-7

~~~

The disappointing, bullseye-missing, and gross update is that many of God's people today are just like many of God's people in Jeremiah's day: rotting and falling apart....good for nothing. (Jeremiah 13:7).  

Are we in the disintegrating group of God's people?  

Were we once close to the skin-of-Jesus, fitted-in-place and abiding with Him...but then we hid in our holes in the rocks for so long that we need dug out?  And our state-of-being is not only weak...we are rotting and falling apart....good for nothing. (Jeremiah 13:7), because of our disconnect from God?  

Are we disappointing God?  Have we missed His bullseye?  Do we feel gross, like our faith and obedience to God have disintegrated?  

Or maybe we ARE abiding with Christ, and we remain fitted-to-Him, but...we see the rotting and falling apart state of our States and people.  

Either way, Jesus went to the cross and died and rose again to put our broken and disintegrating pieces back together.  He can mend what has wasted away in us, and He extends His hand for us to grab ahold of.  He will not falter, or waiver, or crumble or disappoint.  

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.  ~Hebrews 13:8

Take hold of Him today and be amazed at the strength of His fabric.  The true-fiber of our faithful Savior is unable to be penetrated or compromised, regardless of opposition or time.  Jesus is our direction, our instruction, and our purpose.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.  ~John 14:6

 

Blessings,

sarah

https://sarahsundy04.blogspot.com