A Year with God

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.

Running with Horses

Jeremiah, if you get tired in a race against people, how can you possibly run against horses?
If you fall in open fields, what will happen in the forest along the Jordan River?
Even your own family has turned against you.
They act friendly, but don't trust them.
They're out to get you, and so is everyone else.
I loved my people and chose them as my very own.
But now I will reject them and hand them over to their enemies.
My people have turned against me and roar at me like lions.
That's why I hate them.
My people are like a hawk surrounded and attacked by other hawks.
Tell the wild animals to come and eat their fill.
My beautiful land is mined like a field or a vineyard trampled by shepherds and stripped bare by their flocks.
Every field I see lies barren, and no one cares.
A destroying army marches along des en roads and attacks everywhere.
They are my deadly sword; no one is safe from them.
My people, you planted wheat, but because I was furious, I let only weeds grow.
You wore yourselves out for nothing! - Jeremiah 12:5-13 CEV

You think things are hard now? Sometimes it can be just the beginning—,and for good reason. Jeremiah was just a man. Like any human being, he occasionally was worn down by the day-to-day grind. But God offered him neither commiseration nor relief. Rather, he added to Jeremiah's burden by letting him know that what he had experienced up until then was just the beginning. His previous experiences were nothing compared to what was coming. He had to learn to buck up.

What would Jeremiah face? He would be imprisoned in a cistern, he'd be mocked, and eventually he'd be taken as an unwilling captive down to Egypt by people who called him a liar when he told them something they didn't want to hear. But those people took him with them anyway because they believed he was a prophet who heard God. They just didn't believe he always told them what God had actually said.

If the people of Israel had turned against God, Jeremiah had no reason for surprise when they wouldn't listen to God's spokesperson. Jeremiah found strength to continue his work because he knew he and God were working toward the same thing. Like Jeremiah, we're not facing our lives alone even when every minute seems like a struggle.