The right priority builds a strong wall

When do our priorities line up with God’s? 

Our lives are getting back to normal again. My whole family just went to our first baseball game and our granddaughter’s horse show and enjoyed being in the crowd. I didn’t even think about catching a virus because I was too busy thinking about the Rangers catching a baseball or me trying to catch the perfect photo of my granddaughter in her cute riding pants and blazer.

How quickly our priorities can change!  

IF YOU HAD TO PICK ONE PRIORITY . . . 

What if someone asked you to name your number one priority? Is that even possible? We might be able to list our top ten, but which would make the list first?

• Faith?

• Family?

• Friends?

• Future?

How can we choose a priority when so many things matter so much? 

JEREMIAH’S PRIORITY 

Jeremiah is often described as the weeping prophet, a name I think he would probably hate. Chances are, if you pick up your Bibles for a time of devotion, you are more likely to read from Ephesians than the book of Jeremiah. 

Jeremiah was a prophet to the Southern tribes of Israel, or Judah. They were supposed to be the “good guys” of Israel, and were, much of the time. But Jeremiah preached to Judah after the Northern Tribes of Israel had been captured, enslaved, and removed from the land. The Northern Tribes never did return home. 

Judah should have learned from their brothers’ mistakes but didn’t. As a nation, Judah became distracted by their enemies, their finances, their families, and their future. As a result, their priorities changed. Jeremiah’s job was to speak for God and warn Judah that the same thing that happened to the Northern Tribes could happen to them as well. And it did. 

Daniel and his friends were taken captive, and then came a second and third wave of attack. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed, and their lands and families were taken away by the Babylonian armies. Some would say they lost everything, but they didn’t. 

They never lost God’s word. The prophet Jeremiah and many others kept teaching and preaching what God wanted his people to understand.  

Jeremiah preached God’s word almost twenty-five hundred years ago, and I’m still teaching his lessons today. Jeremiah lived during one of the worst times in biblical history. He and the people he loved lost almost everything in their lives. And Jeremiah was tasked with warning the people to repent. He knew how to help, but the people just wouldn’t listen. In fact, they attacked Jeremiah for preaching the truth, and it broke his heart and spirit. That’s why he is called the weeping prophet.  

Jeremiah 15 is a conversation between God and Jeremiah. God tells Jeremiah what is going to happen to Judah because of their lack of faith and misguided priorities: God will judge his people and Judah will fall. Jeremiah knows what will happen and knows nothing will stop God from fulfilling his words. 

When Jeremiah understands he can’t help Judah, he prays for himself. He asks God to protect him from the coming judgment. Jeremiah offers one defense to God. The prophet asks for God to protect him because he has maintained one important priority.  

Jeremiah 15:16 says, “When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name, Lord God Almighty” (NIV). 

Do we share Jeremiah’s godly priority? If so, we can also share in God’s promise. 

CHRISTIANS BEAR GOD’S NAME TOO 

The first people to be called Christians were in the church of Antioch, the church considered most responsible for supporting Paul and his missionary work. The name Christian literally means “little Christ.” Christians bear the name of the Son of God.  

More and more our culture is attacking that name and attacking those who bear it. Is there coming a time when we will pray Jeremiah’s prayers for our nation? And pray Jeremiah’s prayer for himself? Is that time already here? 

Jeremiah prayed to God with confidence because he had lived with one powerful priority. The prophet had consumed God’s word. God’s thoughts and ideas were Jeremiah’s joy and his heart’s delight. The prophet understood that his role in life was to bear God’s name everywhere he went.  

Like Jeremiah, we bear God’s name too. The question for all of us today is this: Do we also share Jeremiah’s priority?  

Do we simply read God’s word, or do we consume it as our joy and our delight? Is God’s word truly our daily bread? 

If so, we should listen to and claim Jeremiah’s promise from God. 

GOD’S PROMISE TO JEREMIAH 

God responded to Jeremiah’s prayer with this promise. God said to Jeremiah and to us, ‘“If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman. Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,’ declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 15:19–20). 

There is so much I want to say about the passage above. I know the Lord spoke to me in those words as I read them again and again. I expect the Lord will do that for all of you as well. Let’s consume his words to Jeremiah as food for our own souls. Will you receive God’s teaching with joy? Will you delight to obey? 

God needs the people who bear his Son’s name to be that fortified wall of bronze. The people in our culture need to be able to turn to the Holy Spirit in us for God’s love and wisdom. We were never allowed to turn to the culture for our guidance. 

It may seem like the culture is winning right now, but that isn’t the biblical truth we should take to heart, with joy. Jesus echoed God’s words to Jeremiah when he told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, ESV). 

PRAY LIKE JEREMIAH 

We can pray like Jeremiah if we share the prophet’s priority. He consumed God’s word as his great joy and delight. Jeremiah bore God’s name.  

Jeremiah could have preached his words to our culture and people would have treated him the same way today. The calling for all of us who bear Christ’s name is to share Jeremiah’s priority. It will no doubt cause us some trouble going forward. Thankfully, we also share Jeremiah’s promise. Hear God say to you: “They will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you.” 

God needs his people to be that bronze wall of truth today. 

We will be—if we will live with Jeremiah’s priority. 

Turn Your Eyes to Jesus

I grew up singing hymns in church, and I often use those familiar words to focus my thoughts on the Lord. 

I wasn’t sure what to write about this week, so I prayed and asked the Lord what he wanted to say. I’ve learned to remain in prayer and quiet my thoughts so I can hear his. 

During those quiet moments, I remembered these words to a favorite hymn: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”

I ended my prayer time with a smile on my face and reached for my computer. 

Turn your eyes away 

It’s important to stay up with all that is going on in our world, but it’s easy to be consumed by the news and our need to know. Sometimes we need to turn our eyes away from news and focus on the One who transcends all news. 

We have often heard it said that information is power. There is no doubt that knowing the facts about COVID-19 will keep us safer. We all have smart choices to make and wrong choices to avoid. 

That said, one thing we have all noticed lately is that the facts we hear on the news may or may not be facts tomorrow or next week. There is still a lot to learn about this virus. 

We should allow the television news to guide our choices. We should also trust God’s Spirit to guide our thoughts and calm our fears. Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (John 16:13). 

We should turn our eyes away from what might be facts so that we can seek God’s voice. It comforts me to remember that if I read his words in Scripture, they are certain. God’s word has been truth for every generation and remains truth today. 

If we turn our eyes away from the news to God’s word, we learn: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” (Romans 11:33). 

Turn your eyes toward the past

What does God’s word give us that the news cannot? 

We are all trying to understand what is not understandable. I find comfort in the fact that we have a lot in common with every generation that has lived before us.  

It has been a long time since preachers focused their sermons on things like hell, plagues, judgment, and fears. The popular sermons today focus on topics that make people feel better about themselves. The subject of most sermons are often about forgiveness, understanding, and comfort. The truth of God is in the totality of his word.  

I’ve wondered if our younger generations have been strengthened by their faith during these days—or if they have felt confused and “let down” by what God has allowed to happen. Did we prepare them with the whole truth of Scripture or just part of God’s story? 

God promised Isaiah, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10). Isaiah’s peers were taken captive by Babylon for seventy years. 

Jesus told his disciples, “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Jesus didn’t promise that believers wouldn’t have times of crisis; he promised we would. 

Every generation experiences a crisis in the world. In light of the past, the COVID crisis of our generation is just one of many. Previous generations were running for shelters, afraid of the bombs. Our great-grandparents and grandparents sent their children to other countries, to carry guns and fight wars. This virus has been described as a “war,” but I’m glad that my war isn’t like the one my great-grandparents feared. 

When we look at history, we find people of great faith in every generation. All of those people endured “tribulation” of some kind. Every generation of God’s people have been “dismayed” and in need of God’s “help” because every generation has experienced “tribulation.” 

When we look to the past, we realize we are only part of a much larger story. The provision of God for this crisis has already been promised. If we look toward the past, we can understand our present and find hope for our future. 

Turn your eyes upon Jesus 

Our ministry has been fielding a lot of questions about COVID-19 these days: 

  • Is this God’s judgment on our world? 
  • Could this be a sign of the end times? 
  • Should we shelter in fear, or live in faith? 
  • What is God saying to us in these days?  

People want answers today for questions that history will answer one day. 

In this “age of information,” we need to remember that the truth God gave Isaiah thousands of years ago is still truth today. God said, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8–9). 

We want answers for our world that only God can give. Until God provides those answers, we have a more important goal. I often think of the fact that I am “sheltered” during the Lenten season. Why now? Could it be that God has provided me an abundance of quiet for an important reason? 

For the next two weeks, I would ask all of us to make a daily journey through the streets of Jerusalem to the hillside of Calvary. 

I want to walk with Jesus this week and see him as he struggles to carry his cross. 

I want to witness all that Jesus endured for my sake. 

I want to see Jesus “high and lifted up” for my salvation. 

I want to remember what happened so I can understand what matters. 

I want to “turn my eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face.”  

Turn your eyes upward 

There is a lot that I do not know about the days ahead. But I know God knows, and that is enough.  

Let’s join our praise with King David’s this week, saying, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and his greatness is unsearchable” (Psalm 145:3).  

Let’s turn our eyes toward Calvary and focus on Jesus. 

Then let’s turn our eyes to heaven and realize that Jesus granted every believer the opportunity to enter the presence of God one day.  Thank you, Lord, for a season that calls us to let “the things of this earth grow strangely dim, in the light of his glory and grace.”