I know what you are thinking so slow down and let us start from the beginning! I have been studying the book of Jeremiah and God kept speaking this to me and laid it on my heart to share with y’all.
Our faithlessness causes us to be unfaithful to God.
Say that one more time
In Jeremiah Chapter Two, we learn that Isreal forsakes God for worthless idols and to follow their own desires. The people forgot The God of their forefathers, The God of their youth, The God who brought their people out of Egypt and through the wilderness, and He tells them that as a bride they once loved him so. He even destroyed their enemies and let them succumb to disaster, all for His holy people. He always fulfilled the promises He made and fulfilled His commitments to them. He never turned His back to them, he never exited the relationship or was unfaithful to us.
Jeremiah 2:3 “I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,” declares the Lord.
You know that feeling at the beginning of a relationship when you fall in love? The one that is full of love, grace, acceptance, and mercy? You are in awe and it’s exciting, new, and you feel like you are on top of the world. You would have done anything to protect this relationship and keep the fire burning. God feels this way about us and it never changes.
But at some point, something in the relationship changed. You notice that the happiness surrounding you is gone, the love, peace, and grace feel like a void and unreachable. Perhaps, you have turned your back to God and broke your commitment to Him? Maybe you have been let down too many times and have had your hopes and dreams shattered when something didn’t quite work out? So you lost faith and just quit. Sometimes it feels like it’s easier to just give up rather than try and be let down when something didn’t go your way. It doesn’t hurt as bad and it’s easier to deal with the emotions if we allow the wall to go up. To be angry. To be bitter. To be swallowed up by depression. You have decided to do life your way and on your own terms suiting your fleshly desires. This is the cause and effect of allowing your faithlessness to turn into an affair.
Jeremiah 2:19 Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the Lord your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.
Eventually, you will be forced to stop running because if you have built your life around your desires and taking part of the world around you, those cracks that appear will crack open and your life will slowly drain from you. The things of the world are toxic to us and we can not withstand the water from the world as it corrodes us. This is why the only water that refreshes us, heals us and makes all things new is the living water from Jesus.
Jeremiah 2:13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
The absolute beauty is that there is hope and there is a redemption story for everyone! The LORD commands you to return to Him, there is forgiveness, there is love, and there is mercy awaiting you. Choose to no longer follow the stubbornness of your evil hearts (Jeremiah 3:17) and follow God’s heart – if you align yourself with God’s word and will for your life – there won’t be room for disappointment, hopelessness, and you will see your faith come to life in action.
Even if there are disappointments, you have a new found confidence that God already has a better plan worked out and your best is yet to come! God didn’t create us to know all of the answers and do things on our own, He created us to rely on Him, to talk with Him, to lead us and provide for us. He is our husband – all we have to do is be obedient to Him and let Him be God over our lives. He desires us to place everything we have, everything we are, and all of our faith into His hands. Can you imagine how He feels when we turn our hearts away from Him and over to fleshly desires?
Jeremiah 3:14 “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you.
John 4:14 but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.
Xoxo,
Hannah B.
P.S. If you enjoyed this blog, please share on your social media feeds! You never know who might need this!
Collective Circle Gathering 