Think On It!
Think On It! Let God Be Your Enough!
AWE-GOD! AWE-TRUTH TO STAND ON!
What Happens When We Depend On Ourselves?
What Happens When God Is Not Our Enough? Think On This:
Jeremiah 42:1-22
What You Fear Will Catch Up with You.
1-4 All the army officers, led by Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, accompanied by all the people, small and great, came to Jeremiah the prophet and said, "We have a request. Please listen. Pray to your God for us, what's left of us. You can see for yourself how few we are! Pray that your God will tell us the way we should go and what we should do." 4Jeremiah the prophet said, "I hear your request. And I will pray to your God as you have asked. Whatever God says, I'll pass on to you. I'll tell you everything, holding nothing back."
5-6 They said to Jeremiah, "Let God be our witness, a true and faithful witness against us, if we don't do everything that your God directs you to tell us. Whether we like it or not, we'll do it. We'll obey whatever our God tells us. Yes, count on us. We'll do it."
7-8Ten days later God's Message came to Jeremiah. He called together Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, including all the people, regardless of how much clout they had.
9-12 He then spoke: "This is the Message from God, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your prayer. He says, 'If you are ready to stick it out in this land, I will build you up and not drag you down, I will plant you and not pull you up like a weed. I feel deep compassion on account of the doom I have visited on you. You don't have to fear the king of Babylon. Your fears are for nothing. I'm on your side, ready to save and deliver you from anything he might do. I'll pour mercy on you. What's more, he will show you mercy! He'll let you come back to your very own land.'
13-17 "But do not say, 'We're not staying around this place,' refusing to obey the command of your God and saying instead, 'No! We're off to Egypt, where things are peaceful–no wars, no attacking armies, plenty of food. We're going to live there.' If what's left of Judah is headed down that road, then listen to God's Message. This is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies says: 'If you have determined to go to Egypt and make that your home, then the very wars you fear will catch up with you in Egypt and the starvation you dread will track you down in Egypt. You'll die there! Every last one of you who is determined to go to Egypt and make it your home will either be killed, starve, or get sick and die. No survivors, not one! No one will escape the doom that I'll bring upon you.'
18 "This is the Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the God of Israel: 'In the same way that I swept the citizens of Jerusalem away with my anger and wrath, I'll do the same thing all over again in Egypt. You'll end up being cursed, reviled, ridiculed, and mocked. And you'll never see your homeland again.'
19-20 "God has plainly told you, you leftovers from Judah, 'Don't go to Egypt.' Could anything be plainer? I warn you this day that you are living out a fantasy. You're making a fatal mistake. "Didn't you just now send me to your God, saying, 'Pray for us to our God. Tell us everything that God says and we'll do it all'?
21-22 "Well, now I've told you, told you everything he said, and you haven't obeyed a word of it, not a single word of what your God sent me to tell you. So now let me tell you what will happen next: You'll be killed, you'll starve to death, you'll get sick and die in the wonderful country where you've determined to go and live."
The Message (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
Think On It! Let God Be Your Enough!
AWE-GOD! AWE-TRUTH TO STAND ON!
BE: Obedient! Let God Be Enough! Trust Him 1st! Don’t Go Your Own Way! Follow Him!
- We want to do what God wants us to do, but we end up chasing our enough, looking forward to something better, striving to find the best this life can offer us.
- We leave behind God’s will to chase after what we feel is our enough. He has faithfully provided the 100 dollar item, yet we get caught up in a cultural chase for the 500 dollar item and we leave behind Kingdom purpose in pursuit of of our fantasy life.
- God is enough for us and He has purposely placed us in our situations, with a God adventure in His mind for us. His final outcome is seen by Him alone, and it is better than anything we could ever chase down.
- The Holy Spirit speaks to us daily, reassuring us that He is working in the unseen for the best good, the better good and a miraculous outcome that we could never hope or plan for.
- Yet we do not trust Him, when we don’t see His hand. We know His heart, yet we do not believe in His plan as we see it with our limited understanding.
- God purposely places us at times in situations that culturally seem to be a place of “want”! We don’t understand His ways, and when we lean upon what our culture dictates, we will naturally pursue the human conditional course of having our enough.
- God has shaped and prepared our lives for a specific region, yet we feel pulled by the dictates of the world to go to “our Egypt” where we think we can find the contentment of all we want, the riches and the best this world has to offer.
- We choose our enough over the goodness of God’s purpose and desire for us and we impulsively run after Egypt, leaving behind all the divine appointments we were shaped to fill, all the people, places and things we could be used to fulfill the destiny and Kingdom Purpose of God in.
- Think About It! What are you chasing? Is your pursuit a Kingdom pursuit?
Let BE, Be Still And Know That Your God Is Simply Enough. Let God Be Enough! AWE-GOD!