Thought for the Week - 9th August

Pastor Gareth Watkins

JEREMIAH 17: 7-8

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
And whose hope is the Lord.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes;
But its leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.”

Following on from last week, the initiative to go out and share the gospel remains with us. So much today is preached online but this doesn’t take away from our own personal responsibility to do as we have been commanded. We are called to be a witness wherever we should find ourselves, and the message God gave Jeremiah to deliver to the people is also true for us today.

 

Jeremiah trusted God in these things for himself and for the people whose desperate souls laid burdened on his heart. As we individually trust God in all things and come deeper into His blessing, the blessing touches us all in the church as we continue to put our hope in Him. Everything that we are, the river of life that runs through us, and the fruitfulness of the work, is built on the blessings of God alone.

 

We have no need to be anxious or fearful in times of drought; we will not cease to yield fruit. Nothing of ourselves can produce this. We have not saved ourselves remember! We are cleansed by the blood of Christ, made righteous in the sight of God, and blessed only by His hand.

 

When we share the word of God, we carry the blessings out to others. People are in desperate need of the Saviour and for blessing to come into their lives. Jeremiah fought to speak the truth, he suffered much at the hands of men because of it. In these times, we too come up against much that would oppose. Jeremiah trusted God to provide all that he needed as he stepped out and continued on despite all that he came against. The word of God lived in his heart and he did not give up. It can be hard to speak the truth uncompromisingly in today’s society, but the how’s and the what ifs are not our concern. God commanded us to speak His word and we can trust Him to provide all that we need for us to do so.

 

Just as Jeremiah asked of the people of his day, the question for each of us is …What are you going to do in the end?

 

Do we stop sharing the truth because it is uncomfortable? Do we water down the very word of God to make it palatable? Do we remain comfortable and silent leaving others to carry the work for fear of opposition? What do you do when the prophets are prophesying falsely, the priests are ruling by power, and the church doesn’t want to know?

 

Choose to teach the truth of Christ that has so wonderfully blessed your own life, and carry that blessing on to all the souls out there that are very much in need of it.

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