Round and Round and Up and Down We Go Again

Tomorrow I am speaking at St John's Church, and unlike other places I preach, they run from a liturgy and give me the scripture passage to preach on, rather than a theme or leaving the choice to me. This time my theme is a passage from Jeremiah.  It's not the one on the picture, but as I was preparing for the service, I read through Jeremiah, and it's really quite discouraging for about the first 29 chapters (There are some odd snippets of hope, but not a lot).

Two things caught my attention. First, is the constant reference to the idolatry of the people.  In this day and age, we probably think about idolatry as bowing down to funny statues, but it's really about putting something in the place of, or above God.   In today's society, we still have idols, they just look a little different; iPhones, Laptops, TVs, Hobbies to name but a few.    

In Jeremiah's day,  the problem was that God was there, but they turned to something else instead.  Sound familiar??  Today how many times do we get sick and rush straight to Google instead of to the Great Physician?

The other thing I was thinking about is how easy it would have been for Jeremiah to lose hope entirely; I think he comes close. In the bit I am preaching on (8:18-9:1) he is despairing again over the condition of the people and wants to weep and weep for them.  It all got me thinking about our own emotions.  It can be really easy to look around us, either at our own situations or at the world in general and really let life get us down.  We could even say that we idolize our emotions; that is, we put them in the place of God.  We rely on, trust in and lean on our own feelings when we should only give that position to Jesus. 

The truth is that our hearts our deceitful.  Our 'hearts' in the scripture there (Jeremiah 17:9) refer to our mind, will, feelings and emotions.   They are fraudulent, or crooked. Our emotions cannot be trusted.  They are based on our sense knowledge and can therefore be manipulated and mislead. 

If we want to avoid a rollercoaster of emotional instability, we only have one option; to build our foundation on something immovable; that is of course the Word of God.

We know the story of the wise man who built his house on the sand, and his foolish counterpart who built his house on the sand.  When we build on the correct foundation, we won't be shaken in storms. In the lyrics of that well known song "All other ground is sinking sand".

Don't build your foundation on a shifting platform of emotional idolatry and be thrown up and down and round and round like a rollercoaster.   Stick to the word and you'll find it a much more stable place to be.

Have a great weekend!






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Teabags and Popcorn!

Image
So, I was eating popcorn yesterday and drinking a fruit tea and I started wondering what makes a popcorn pop! (As you do). With a little help from Google, I found out that inside the kernel, the hard shell, there is a little bit of moisture and when it heats up inside, it turns to steam and as you keep heating it up, the pressure from the steam builds and builds until it cracks open the hard exterior and makes a yummy snack. And then I thought about my teabag (I do promise there will be a spiritual application to this, not just information on my food and drink habits).  The label had come off the teabag, so I didn't know exactly what flavour it was, until I poured on the boiling water and tasted it! As promised... the spiritual bit!  We are like teabags and popcorn!  This is a deep spiritual truth!  Really it is!  Read on and I'll explain why! Firstly we are like popcorn because when heated up, whatever we stir up inside us will burst out.  We're also like teabags too.  We
Read more

Looking back

Image
This week I was listening to a message and I was reading the verse in Luke 17:32 which simply says " Remember Lot's wife ."   This is a really interesting statement. When Jesus tells us to consider something or remember something we should pay attention. So what do we know about Lot's wife?  Not a lot really.  But what we do know is that an angel of the Lord took her by the hand to lead her out of the city before God destroyed it.  She was told to run for her life and not look back.  According to Genesis 19, she ran but she turned and look back and as a result, turned to a pillar of salt.  This short verse really spoke to me for a number of reasons.    The Apostle Paul tells us " I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. "  (Phil 3:13 TPT) Since 2020, it's like we have a new category in history BC now stands for BEFORE COVID! People a
Read more

See for yourself!

Image
The New Year is often a point in time where we consider new beginnings. We make new year's resolutions and wipe the slate clean and start over, and while goal-setting and change isn't bad, in spiritual terms, will-power alone isn't enough to effect change.   Real and lasting change begins on the inside of us. It begins with seeing on the inside with the eyes of faith before we ever see something with our natural eyes on the outside.  What do I mean by that?  Well, think about Joseph.   Joseph had a dream that he would one day see his family bowing before him.  He had to walk through rejection from his family, slavery, false accusations and prison before he saw that with his physical eyes!  He had a dream and I believe he held on to that dream every single day. If Joseph had seen himself to be helpless, forsaken and lost he would have had the opportunity to fall into despair and do nothing.  The chances are, that would have kept him a slave or a prisoner until he died.  What
Read more