It is easy to forget how great the trials God delivered us from. But in captivity, Jeremiah remembered terrifying days in Jerusalem when God saved his life. He blessed the LORD.
Lamentations 3:52-55,57 - "Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon. ... Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not."
PRINCIPALS - "Cyrus and the Medes"
Once Judah had endured its seventy-year captivity, God ordained the Medes, under Cyrus, to violently overthrow Babylon. In Jeremiah 51, the Medes are referred to as a destroying wind, fanners (as winnowing or threshing a harvest), an invasion of caterpillars, and spoilers. Babylon could not possibly stand.
Jeremiah 51:1-2,14,53 - "Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, ...a destroying wind; ...and will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty her land: ...I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; ...from me shall spoilers come unto her."
PRINCIPLES - "Our Rock Is Greater Than All The World's Mountains"
In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar dreamed of a statue representing the kingdoms of men. He saw a rock, hewn out of a mountain, representing Messiah, come and crush the statue - crushing all the kingdoms of men. The rock became a great "mountain," a kingdom throughout the whole earth. Jeremiah affirmed that Babylon, the great "destroying mountain" would be totally destroyed. Our Rock is greater than all the world's mountains.
Jeremiah 51:26 - "They shall not take of thee a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for ever, saith the LORD."
PROPHECIES - "Israel - My Battle Axe"
God hated the brutish idols of Babylon. "They are vanity, the work of errors: ...they shall perish. The portion of Jacob [the LORD] is not like them; ...Israel is the rod of his inheritance." Under Messiah, Israel - His "battle axe," "the rod of His inheritance," will conquer all nations at Armageddon.
Jeremiah 51:20,24 - "Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms. ...I will render unto Babylon ...all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD."
Keep Paddling Upstream |
Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. - Psalm 141:3 |
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Do you really believe that you need to watch over your mouth? Most believers don’t. You can tell that just by listening to their conversations. They profess, for example, to be trusting God concerning their health. But you’re likely to hear them say something like this: “I’m just sure I’m going to get the flu. I get it every year. I’ll be sicker than a dog too, you’ll see....” Do people like that have what they say? Oh yes! Check with them a few weeks later and they’ll be quick to tell you that they got just as sick as they said they’d be. But, odds are, if you try to tell them there’s any connection between the words they spoke and the illness they suffered, they’ll look at you as if you were out of your mind. Of course, if they’d dig in to the Word of God and find out what it has to say about the subject, they’d realize that the words they speak have a tremendous impact on their lives. They’d see that words quite literally determine their future. If you’re a born-again believer, you’ve already experienced the most powerful example of that. You believed with your heart and confessed with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you changed the eternal course of your life. You know firsthand just how powerful your words can be. Yet, even so, if you’re like me, you still find that speaking faith-filled words consistently is tough to do. I’ve been at it myself for many years now and, despite all the time I’ve spent on it and all the experiences I’ve had, it’s still something I have to watch all the time. You see, the world around you is in negative flow. Like a rushing river, it’s always pulling at you, trying to get you to flow with it. Living by faith and speaking words of faith is like trying to paddle upstream. You can do it—but it’s a great deal of work. And there’s never a time you can afford to take a vacation from it. All you have to do is relax a little bit and you’ll just start drifting right back down the river. Make the decision right now to set a watch over your lips. Determine to consistently fill your mouth with the Word of God. “Attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings” (Proverbs 4:20). Let God’s Word be your watch and everything you say will take you a little farther upstream! |
Frederick Douglass once said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress." Life is hard, and throughout every person's life, we do not know where to turn, but in those moments, God is ready and willing; we only need to ask. The speed of our days and the hustle of what we do daily can sidetrack us from the reading of the word. We have to remind ourselves by reading the word; we are building our faith and preparing ourselves when times get hard. The word of God has every answer we could ever need, but when we are in the moment that we cry out to God, we have equipped our minds to hear him receive his word and keep what he has for us.
ReplyDeleteAmen! What a "AWESOME" word of God, Brother Ashcraft. Well said, indeed and so very true. 4 our "WORDS," can be heard by our Lord Jesus Christ and our Enemy. So be very care with your "WORDS," Brothers and Sisters.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this word!
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of a lesson that I taught to your young people here recently. The analogy was of us trying to paddle a canoe in a river. It’s much harder to paddle a canoe when there is water on the inside. At times, it’s easy to let in so much that you feel like you’re sinking. Some things just don’t belong in our boat.
The more we let go of the cares of life and the stronghold of sin, the faster we can paddle. What’s in your boat?
As always, these lessons are both eye opening and uplifting. Thank you once again!