Daily Devotion July 5

July 5: Jeremiah 12:5-6 KJV Key Verse: Jeremiah 12:5 5 If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with horses? and if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustedst , they wearied thee, then how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan? Devotion: Sometimes the best way to learn something is to jump in at the deep end; but that can be a very frightening experience and may put some people off before they begin… Jeremiah was complaining and God’s response was not to give him what he was asking for but to make him stop and think about what was happening. God may well allow something into our lives so we can learn how to cope with it before we have to get involved with something even harder to cope with. God is not going to dump you in the deep end without giving you a way of handling the situation first of all. We may not see it that way because we are far too worried about what is going wrong we do not look for the things God is trying to allow us to see. Jeremiah did not have an easy job to do and if we think our work for God is going to be a walk in the park then maybe we have not seen the state of the world around us. The world we live in is broken and needs fixing. Jeremiah was given instruction to show the leaders what should be done to get back into a proper relationship with God. They had gone astray and Jeremiah was to be the one to point them back in the right direction. Now I don’t know if you have ever had to point people back in the right direction but there are two types of people. The first type are those who know they are lost and are asking direction; they tend to listen and follow direction. Then there are the people who refuse to believe they are lost and will not listen but tell you how wrong you are instead; these are the type of people Jeremiah had to face! God wants us to be able to do the tasks He sets for us and in order for us to be able to do them He may well get us to go through a few trials of our own in order to be strong enough to run the race and complete the task He asks. If we just give up because we think it is too hard or not worth the effort then we have failed in what God has asked of us. Listen to God and learn every step of the way! Points to Ponder: Do you back off when nobody seems to listen? What has God asked you to do?