Day 7
Jeremiah 31:23-34
23 This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “When I bring them back from captivity,[a] the people in the land of Judah and in its towns will once again use these words: ‘The Lord bless you, you prosperous city, you sacred mountain.’ 24 People will live together in Judah and all its towns—farmers and those who move about with their flocks. 25 I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been pleasant to me.
27 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will plant the kingdoms of Israel and Judah with the offspring of people and of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, and to overthrow, destroy and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the Lord. 29 “In those days people will no longer say,
‘The parents have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
30 Instead, everyone will die for their own sin; whoever eats sour grapes—their own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to[b] them,[c]”
declares the Lord.
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
The Weary Soul
Our schedules are so toxic that we have forgotten what it feels like not to RUSH everywhere. Busyness is not listed in the Bible as a spiritual gift! Yet we celebrate it as if it is. We ask how someone is, and when we get a list of the 10 things they have just done, we can feel awed, impressed and even unworthy. But should we?
C.S. Lewis wrote, “The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists of shoving it all back, in listening to that other voice, taking that other point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”
I know that feeling well. If I am honest, there are many times in my own life where the demands on my time seem to reach epic proportions. I buy into the lie that I somehow have to achieve 41 things before breakfast.
I love what Paul Maxwell writes:
“Our rest is not measured in minutes or hours, but in proximity. Sabbath is a day, but it is also a place with God — a place he makes, where he pursues us…”
This is beautifully true.
In our reading today from Jeremiah 31, verse 25 wraps itself around my heart. It is where God says to us:
“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.” (ESV)
What a wonderful promise that is!
How is your soul today? Are you weary? Do you feel as though you are languishing? That word “languishing” is defined in the dictionary as “to grow weak, to decay or to decline”. Is that you today?
If it is, let me encourage you in the words of Victor Hugo. “Go to sleep in peace. God is awake.”
We don’t need to lose our own peace or sleep because of fear, anxiety or stress. God goes to work on our behalf, fighting our battles and bringing us His life and salvation. Whatever storms we face in life, it is possible to hold on to the truth that God is with us through them.
Pray: Father, thank you for your promise that You will satisfy my weary soul and find the places in me that need Your life-giving touch. Amen
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Taken from Reading Plans from YouVersion (https://www.bible.com/en-GB/reading-plans/11321-the-rest-of-your-life/day/7 ) and River Publishing for this plan.