“You’re…a mirage, an oasis in the distance and then nothing…”
Jeremiah to God (Jer. 15:18)
About 600 years BC the Israelites had gone through all the motions of “religion” and were living just like the other nations, with all their pagan practices including sacrificing their children to another god. Reform had come but was only skin deep. God had pleadingly given His people so many chances to turn.
In a most wrenching treatise of offense, God lets Jeremiah know He must stop the carnage, the entitlement, the flippancy. (Jere. 2) Jeremiah holds the warning before them and they scoff, they bully, they claim, “God is with us.” And Jerusalem had no idea what was coming.
Jeremiah is done. Angry, hurt and lonely. No one listens. He’s had so much come against him; bombarded with one thing after another. You almost expect him to storm out and quit. But what does he do?
He comes bare and raw to the Lord. He speaks his mind and to me it feels irreverent and accusatory. He’s SO honest. He brings all the reality, the mess, the sheer emotion without hiding or minimizing any of it. And God is glad that he does. But he doesn’t leave him there.
“Prayer is a constant re-establishment of our priorities.”
Run with Horses, E Peterson, p.103
Our lives and circumstances throw all kinds of wrenches in our thinking, planning and dreaming. God hears Jeremiah out; doesn’t squelch his outcry. Perhaps He’s been waiting for the truth to come out, to be faced and owned. That’s when you get to the real core beliefs, the real wrestling, where names are changed. We have to get there, but sometimes it takes years.
God’s patient response is not pandering because he knows what staying with those kinds of volatile emotions does to a person. He’s out for our good. He basically says, “I’m glad you came to Me. I feel the same rejection and pain. This is heart wrenching. I hear you and know how difficult it is. But I also strengthen you for it. My plan is coming about. So, let’s return to your priorities… Your goal is not that they follow you, but you follow Me. Return to Me. (Jere. 15:19)
Our rock bottom goal is following our God. Sometimes emotions, mild or fierce, are windows into what’s going on in us that’s unseen or maybe even unconscious.
Have you let God in on your raw emotion to re-establish your priorities?