Jeremiah was called into the service of the eternal God - “Before I
formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I set you
apart for My holy purpose. I appointed you to be a prophet to the
nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). Jeremiah called the people back to the Lord,
“the fountain of living (life-giving) water” (Jeremiah 2:13). He called
them to be converted - to turn around. They were turning their backs on
the Lord. They were replacing Him with something else, something
useless, something that would never bring them real satisfaction
(Jeremiah 2:13). Now, they were to turn their faces to Him (Jeremiah
2:27). To a returning people, God promises his mercy - “Come back,
unfaithful Israel. It is the Lord speaking. I will no longer frown on
you because I’m merciful, declares the Lord, I will no longer be angry
with you.” returning to the Lord means confessing our sins - “Admit that
you’ve done wrong! You have rebelled against the Lord your God ...” The
message of Jeremiah is summed up in the words, “Come back, you
rebellious people” (Jeremiah 3:12-14).
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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