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Day 258 Jeremiah 14:17 “Therefore you shall say this word to them: ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day and let them not cease. For the virgin daughter of my people has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow. 18 If I go out to the field, then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, then behold, those sick from famine! Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’” 19 Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; and for the time of healing, and there was trouble. 20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21 Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember, do not break Your covenant with us. 22 Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait for You, since You have made all these. No one wants to be forgotten. Everyone wants someone to care about them, look after them, and love them. God pronounced punishment for His people because they followed idols and not Him. Jeremiah pleaded with God not to forsake His people and remember His covenant with them. Many Christians think they can do whatever they want because they once accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. To prove they’re Christians, they buy the jewelry and display it proudly from their ears and necks. Yet their actions leave little doubt they are Christians. They haven’t changed. They don’t read their Bibles. They don’t go to church. They spend their days and nights in the same pleasures as before they accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. How is anyone to know they’re Christians? Take off the jewelry and open your Bibles. When you change your lifestyle to represent your Christian life, people will see you are different. You don’t walk the same, talk the same, or act the same as the rest of the world. Don’t let God do to you what He did to His people who disobeyed Him and lived like the rest of the world around them. He might not send you into exile, but it will feel like He did. He won’t hear your prayers. He won’t bring blessings on your life. He will treat you like a wayward son or daughter until you return to Him, confessing your sin with a sincere heart and turn your life back to Him. He waits patiently for your return. Remember the parable of the Prodigal Son? The son went into the world and didn’t remember how good he had it at home until he was eating pig food. Then he turned his attention to his father and returned to him in full submission. His father looked and waited for him every day until he saw him return, then he ran to him, kissed him, put a ring on his finger and shoes on his feet, welcoming him back. Luke 15:11 Then He said: “A certain man had two sons. 12 “And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ So, he divided to them his livelihood. 13 “And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, journeyed to a far country, and there wasted his possessions with prodigal living. 14 “But when he had spent all, there arose a severe famine in that land, and he began to be in want. 15 “Then he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. 16 “And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the pods the swine ate, and no one gave him anything. 17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 ‘I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 “and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.’” 20 “And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 ‘And bring the fatted calf here and kill it and let us eat and be merry. 24 ‘For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.” Are you eating with the pigs? Are you following the world and its pleasures? Remember your promise to serve Him and return to Him with a repentant heart. He’s waiting, just as He waited for Judah and Jerusalem to return to Him. Let’s pray: Father, I’m tired of eating pig food. Forgive me. Help me serve You with a repentant heart. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. Copyright © 27 February 2022 by Valerie Routhieaux Image courtesy of Pixabay.