Tag Archives: Jeremiah 17

On human frailty

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Hallelujah. Praise the Lord, O my being! Let me praise the Lord while I live, let me hymn to my God while I breathe.

Do not trust in princes, in a human who offers no rescue. His breath departs, he returns to the dust. On that day his plans are naught.

Happy whose help is Jacob’s God, his hope – for the Lord his God, maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, who keeps faith forever, does justice for the oppressed, gives bread to the hungry, the Lord looses those in fetters.

The Lord gives sight to the blind. The Lord makes the bent stand erect. The Lord loves the righteous.

The Lord guards sojourners, orphan and widow He sustains, but the way of the wicked contorts.

The Lord shall reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Hallelujah.

(Ps 146 R Alter translation, 2007)

Stop trusting in mere humans, who have but a breath in their nostrils, Why hold them in esteem?

(Isa 2.22)

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the Lord… But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream…

A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.

(Jer 17.5,7&8,12&13)

I urge, then, first of all , that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

(1 Tim 2,1-4)

One of the – many – wonderful things about believing in Jesus, and trusting in God as our Father and Creator, is that we are invited to learn to think about the world, about time, and our place in it as God does. We are offered glimpses of the great divine narrative, and as that story is embedded in our thinking, becoming our story, we are set free from so much that brings fear, anxiety, all the tossings to-and fro between hope and despair which beset those who have no anchor in eternal love.

God’s children are invited to put their hope in the only one who is worthy of it – the Almighty One, the Maker and Sustainer of all things, and the Author of the story. We are invited into an intimate, loving and trusting relationship with the only being who really is in charge. and can orchestrate everything that happens in order to fulfil His purposes – which are for blessing, beyond our imagining, as we take our place in his family and inherit the new creation.

Until that day dawns, this world is subject to the evils which beset those who have consistently rebelled against their creator, who persistently trust in their own gifts (which are truly good things, God’s gifts to us) in order to live without God in the world. Humankind is increasingly reaping the harvest of unbelief, of human pride and rejection of God. Populations are lured by extravagant promises of a golden future, to be inaugurated by leaders who know full well that they cannot actually deliver these things, and are playing on human needs and desires in order to gain power. No one, not one human being on our planet, is actually in control, no matter what their social media claims for them. 

While God may choose to permit the rise and persistence of regimes which bring appalling depths of suffering and cruelty, which dismiss the threats to our world’s fragile climate, which survive by threats, repression, mis-information and constant surveillance – the bible is clear that He is not tainted by or culpable for the decisions of these leaders, they will answer to Him for their use of power. 

Human frailty is written all over history, and we can see it today as we look around. How great is our relief then as God’s beloved children to know that we can put our faith for our lives and our future – and this world’s story – in God, who alone is able to bring good out of evil, and light out of darkness. We do not need to be buffeted by current affairs, and must be wary of being sucked into the waves of exaggerated reaction which increasingly masquerade as news. We have a foundation which is sure, and must exercise the discipline of fixing our eyes on God, keeping human beings – no matter how ‘powerful’, in their places.

Thank you Father, that you alone are reliable, and that in You I can trust. Help me to pray for those in power in our world, remembering their frailty and need of salvation. Help me to live steadily and confidently by faith in Your power and purposes, not swayed and frightened by what happens. Let my small life be a witness to your sovereignty, justice and goodness, so that others may come to put their trust in you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

A little self-knowledge….

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Let me understand the teaching of your precepts; then I will meditate on your wonders. My soul is weary with sorrow; strengthen me according to your word. Keep me from deceitful ways; be gracious to me through your law……

Turn my heart towards your statutes and not towards selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things; preserve my life according to your word…..Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good….

May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise; then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word.

(Ps 119. 27-29, 36-38, 41&42)

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

(Jer 17.9)

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

(Matt 5.3-6)

It can be profoundly disconcerting when the word read speaks directly to the heart; when the spirit pierces our understanding, and we see a little of our own reality as God sees. I thank him that we do not see the whole, being spared that picture, which if seen would cause us to despair of living for even a few moments in a truly godly way! Thanks be to God for his mercy, in shielding us from the truth: for surely we are none of us perfect yet, and so much remains that is contrary to the beauty of holiness which we see in Christ. In our ignorance we persevere, trusting that God will reveal – in his good time – what needs to be dealt with, and accepting that there is a good deal of it!

But when it is so revealed, then what do we do? The temptation is to resist the vision, to replay in our minds all the soothing, deceitful reassurances that this world would give us, that this thing is no sin, but an understandable and justifiable line of thought or action given the difficult circumstances in which we find ourselves…… Our culture cannot deal healthily with the idea of shame, of grieving that we are less worthy than we held ourselves to be, and cries loudly against it. But the word of God speaks firmly, of the standards to which we are held accountable, and the power which is given to us to live up to them in the life of the risen Christ within us by his spirit.

When I, who have so many of this world’s good things, and all the blessings of salvation and the hope of a life to come, find myself persistently anxious, petulant and discontented, then the response is not to perform more acts of love and indulgence towards myself, but to confess as sin this wrong attitude, this utter lack of real gratitude and lived trust in God. My heart is indeed deceitful when it tries to blame anyone but myself for this attitude, to copy Eve in her desire to excuse herself and put the burden of guilt on another. I am responsible before God for my attitude to the days he gives me; to the people who fill my life; for my use – or abuse – of the talents, possessions, and time he has allotted to my stewardship.

I am a flawed human being, living with other flawed human beings; and my Lord and Father knows all that is part of my lot. And he commands praise, obedience, joyful embracing of his will for my life – not on the basis of my feelings, but on the facts of his nature and acts. I have no excuse before him for failing to render these things, but oh how very easily I speak false comfort to myself and claim excuses for just that failure.

I do indeed hunger and thirst after righteousness; I long for my heart and mind to be turned effectively away from selfish desires; I grow weary of the battle for holiness, and sick at heart when I see fresh glimpses of my own deceitfulness and failures.

Thanks be to God then, who has given us full and free forgiveness in his Son, by whose death we receive life, and whose blood covers all our sins. Yes, we rightly grieve over our failures, and long for transformation; but we also have the right to claim victory over the one who taunts us with our failures, over the devil who would love nothing better than to keep us in the bitter dust of self-pity and despair.

Let us claim the promised comfort; the guaranteed inheritance; the blessed assurance of forgiveness and acceptance, so that the accuser of the brethren will depart, and we may labour on for a time in peace, with confidence that our God who began this good work in us will finish it and one day we shall rejoice in knowing ourselves perfected in Christ!