Jeremiah was not a popular
prophet. He didn’t tell the people what they wanted to hear. He wasn’t
concerned with gaining their approval. He was determined to keep on
speaking God’s Word - whatever the people thought about him, said about
him or did to him. The first priority is faithfulness. We must not make
relevance the be-all and end-all. Relevance must be built on
faithfulness. The two are to be held together - faithfulness and
relevance. If we do not remain faithful to God’s Word, our words will be
irrelevant. They will not be God’s Word for the people. “Your Word is
truth” (John 17:17) - This must be at the heart of both our preaching
and our living.
We read about Elijah in his high-points of strength - the triumph over the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36-39) - and his low-points of weakness - he is ready to give up: “I’ve had enough now, Lord” (1 Kings 19:4). How did Elijah get into such a mess? He forgot this: “The Lord’s power was on Elijah” (1 Kings 18:46). In all life’s ups and downs, we must hold on to this: The Lord has sent His Spirit of power to live in us (2 Timothy 1:7). How are we to live in the power of the Spirit? We need to feed on the Word of God and drink in the Word of God (1 Kings 17:4). We need to pray that the Lord will send His showers of blessing (1 Kings 17:14). We are to live our life “according to the Word of the Lord” (1 Kings 17:16). For our life of faith to be strong in the Lord, we need to listen attentively to the preaching of God’s Word (1 Kings 17:24).
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