Jeremiah 31:25

I will refresh the weary and satisfy the faint.” ~ Jeremiah 31:25

 


I have been reading through the book of Judges. The people would follow God as long as they had a leader, but would fall away when there was no one to guide them. In and out of devotion to God they went. Then, they would suddenly remember him, and would plead their cause before him. Ultimately, rescue would come, they would conquer their oppressor, and live once more in peace. Until the next time. For years they would fall in and out of love with their God. The greatest possession they lacked was the presence of the Holy Spirit within. We generally don’t follow other gods, falling away from our God, then pleading and coming back to worship him alone. We may and do go through dry places in our spiritual walk, but they rarely take us away from God, and in fact, more often, those dry places draw us closer to God in dependence. We have endings to those dry places, those desert lands, and find that God has brought us into a greater refreshment had we stayed the course we were on and not entered those lands. Seasons must change, for even the earth cannot remain in summer all year, or the earth will grow stagnant. God will refresh us, and satisfy our weak heart. I see this happening now, as we see the cases of covid slowing and growing smaller each week. More are vaccinated, and more becoming vaccinated, praise God! Soon our world will open completely, and though it will be a different world, we have great things to anticipate! How much more will we appreciate the normality of life after covid? How much more will we appreciate fellowship with one another? I know some are saying they won’t go back to church, to join with one another after the lockdowns end. How sad that they think this way! We have been isolated from each other for so long, let us not remain isolated from worshipping our God who renews and refreshes us after our desert walk!
 
Pastor Julia
image from pixabay

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments

Popular posts from this blog

Romans 8:26

Image
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans ~ Romans 8:26 Many days, many times, I have the words for prayer. It comes forth and flows fairly naturally as I converse with my Lord God. I hope in the God I worship to hear me, and to receive my words, as I pray in the name of Jesus and believe in Him, my intercessor. He is my Living Saviour, my High Priest, standing at the right hand of God the Father. But there are times when my pain has been so deep that my words will not come. There are times when my agony is so piercing that what words I may speak would not be enough. And so, in my deep, black moments, I come before my God and let my darkest emotions erupt in sounds that only He can understand. The Holy Spirit within me cries out in my stead, and He becomes my second intercessor. It is not that He is not there with me in all my prayers, but there are times wh...
Read more

Proverbs 18:2

Image
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in sharing their own opinions ~ Proverbs 18:2 If we are going to understand something, we must fully digest it so that when we speak, we speak with wisdom. When we have only half truths in our mind, our words become empty and senseless. We then puff out air rather than understanding when we speak. A wise person will want to improve their mind through learning in various ways from the world around them. A person who delights in spiritual understanding will find peace and enjoyment in reading the Word of God on a daily basis, and in participating with God’s people in a learning and praising environment – the church! We come together in corporate worship with the understanding that not one of us knows all things, but we bend our mind and heart to learn what God has to show and say to us. A foolish person makes a show of what they “know” to please their friends or to save face in front of them. More often a wise person will hold t...
Read more

Isaiah 43:19

Image
Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert ~ Isaiah 43:19 When we meet a challenge, we are often found discouraged, lost, even hopeless. Nothing is working, everything seems to be against us. We do not know how to move forward, so we remain curled up in a ball. Then, a glimmer of light shines through! Hope is regained and movement is stirred within. Don’t we become excited when we begin to feel it? God moves like that. We cannot see our way around it, but He can and does. And He makes a way for us out of the calamity of our fears. It is the feeling of springtime after a long winter, or the smell of fresh cut grass. Life stirs within and we move and we see what God saw all the time – the answer to our dilemma. Our desert place becomes an oasis, and we can do what we are called to do. Something totally unexpected happens, something unheard of, but it begins in our life, and we feel the...
Read more