Jeremiah 7:1-34

👉 This chapter is particularly interesting, because it is addressed to the people showing up to worship at the temple.

The people were living however they wanted all the other days. They were stealing, murdering, committing adultery, swearing falsely, making offerings to false gods, and going after other gods.

Then – they were coming to the temple as if all was well. They were claiming deliverance and forgiveness only to go on doing the same things.

The people were just going through the motions – trying to appease God – trying to do the bare minimum in an attempt to avoid his wrath.

But God looked beyond their religious habits to the condition of their hearts and said to Jeremiah, “Do not pray for these people because I won’t hear it.”

This generation was worse than their fathers.

• They did not obey.
• They walked in their own counsels.
• They had stubborn, evil hearts.
• They went backward and not forward.

👉 And wouldn’t we like to gasp and clutch our pearls at the audacity? Wouldn’t we like to point our fingers and shake our heads?

I mean – they were living however they wanted. Doing things that they knew not to do. Not doing the things they knew they should do. Thinking they knew better than God how their lives should look. Chasing happiness. Meaning. Acceptance. Validation.

Maybe it’s just me – but it doesn’t sound so different from how we conduct ourselves a lot of the time.

👉 And – as I read this chapter – I kept coming back to verse 24.

The people went backward and not forward.

I don’t want to go backward.

As I look to a new year – I want to go forward with God.

I don’t want to carry the same burdens.

Make the same mistakes.

Choose the same idols.

God calls us onward and upward. To come. To follow. To grow. To experience peace and joy.

Personally, I could use some of that.

Let’s go forward, friends.