Jer.
15:19 Therefore
thus says the Lord:
“If you
return,
Then I will bring you back;
You shall stand before Me;
If you take out
the precious from the vile,
You shall be as My mouth.
Let them return to
you,
But you must not return to them.
20 And I
will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall;
And they will fight
against you,
But they shall not prevail against you;
For I am with you
to save you
And deliver you,” says the Lord.
21 “I will
deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grip of
the terrible.”
Jeremiah
had been complaining to the Lord – he felt that God had not helped him when he
really needed Him to. Jeremiah was angry, hurt and afraid. I love the Lord’s
response here – He makes 7 promises to Jeremiah. These same 7 promises will
come to us when we run back to the Lord, stop speaking worthless things before
Him and look for all that is precious in the midst of the vile and abhorrent
things in our hearts:
1.
The
Lord will restore and bring us back into fellowship with Him
2.
The
Lord will cause us to stand before His presence
3.
The
Lord will use us as His mouthpiece in the world
4.
The
Lord will make us strong like a steel wall
5.
The
Lord will be with us to save us
6.
The
Lord will deliver us from all wickedness
7.
The
Lord will redeem us from the grip of every terrible thing
God is
raising up an army in these days who are made stronger because of the victories
they have won over the wicked things in their hearts. In fact, the Lord calls
to us like he did to Jeremiah: Look for the treasures and precious things that
can be mined out of the darkest parts of your hearts. What the enemy has wanted
to use to destroy you, the Lord will use to bring great victories over sin and
every vile thing. He will cause jewels and treasures to replace evil. In fact,
He will use you as His mouthpiece to proclaim to generations and nations the
glory of the Lord. He will do all of this right in the place where the enemy
thought he had defeated you.
All we
have to do is:
1.
Return
to the Lord.
2.
Stand
before the Lord - this is a place of complete surrender. Worship Him.
3. Take out the precious things from the place of evil - look for God's beauty to replace the lies and taunts of the enemy - sometimes the precious things of God can be found in unusual and unexpected places. It will take courage and faith to do this work. There is a great temptation to wallow in self-hatred and self-pity. That is totally a tactic of the enemy. Let us put those things aside and allow the Redeemer to call us all back into alignment with His destiny!
4.
Yield
our mouths to the Lord so we can be His mouthpiece
5.
Refuse
to go back to the place of our weakness and sin
The rewards are great if we will surrender to the Lord. Jeremiah didn't have to do very much in order to come into great favor and restoration with the Lord.
Just think...God did all of this for Jeremiah - in a day before there was atonement - before Jesus had made a way for us to be made right with God through his suffering and death. If Jeremiah could have this restoration...how much more can we find complete wholeness in Christ!
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