July 4 Be Free!

July 4, 2010
Read Jeremiah 3 - 5

Jer 5:18-19 "Yet even in those days," declares the LORD, "I will not destroy you completely. 19 And when the people ask, 'Why has the LORD our God done all this to us?' you will tell them, 'As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners in a land not your own.'

JEREMIAH is prophesying—clearly looking into the future through God’s eyes—before God sent his people into exile in Babylon. Why did God disperse his people to a foreign nation? After all, he had gone to great lengths to free them from slavery and to give them a Promised Land of plenty.

God took this radical action to punish his people because “you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land”.

In other words, God’s people did not want to act like his people. They dishonored his name as they worshiped stone and wooden idols. They worshiped on the hills instead of in the temple. They treated God’s truths as lies and evil ways as truth.

God has long shown them the truth. “Ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jer 6:16) is God’s remedy for the awful life his people are living.

Guess what! It’s his remedy for your life, too. Turning away from God turns you to a troubled and unsettled life. Opposing the truth makes way for lies, a way of life exiled from God. I know. I see it in troubled people all the time.

You don’t want to live that way. Living away from God’s truth imprisons you and binds you to despair and depression. Live for joy. Live with God and live in peace. Turn from your exile and receive the Father’s invitation to join him and to be free in his truth.