The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 22 January 2015 “Jeremiah: 'Why was I ever born?'”

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Thursday, 22 January 2015 “Jeremiah: 'Why was I ever born?'”
Daily Scripture: Jeremiah 20: Jeremiah Complains to the Lord
7 You tricked me, Lord,
    and I was really fooled.
You are stronger than I am,
    and you have defeated me.
People never stop sneering
    and insulting me.
8 You have let me announce
    only destruction and death.
Your message has brought me
nothing but insults
    and trouble.
9 Sometimes I tell myself
not to think about you, Lord,
    or even mention your name.
But your message burns
in my heart and bones,
    and I cannot keep silent.
14 Put a curse on the day I was born!
    Don’t bless my mother.
15 Put a curse on the man
who told my father,
“Good news!
    You have a son.”
16 May that man be like the towns
    you destroyed without pity.
Let him hear shouts of alarm
in the morning
    and battle cries at noon.
17 He deserves to die
for not killing me
    before I was born.
Then my mother’s body
    would have been my grave.
18 Why did I have to be born?
Was it just to suffer
    and die in shame?
Reflection Questions:
Jeremiah the prophet had a deeply unpopular (many of his countrymen would have said “unpatriotic”) message. He urged Israel to face reality, and cooperate with the powerful invading Babylonian army (see, for example, Jeremiah 27:1-22). Most Israelites, especially the kings, hated and persecuted him for that. Jeremiah spoke bluntly to God about the awful pain he felt as an outcast.• Most Israelites had forsaken God’s ways, but still wanted to claim God’s protection and favor (cf. Jeremiah 7:5-11). When Jeremiah exposed their wicked actions, they blamed him for speaking out, instead of looking within to see if his message was true. Have you had some part of your way of life challenged, either by a human speaking for God or by God’s Spirit working directly in your heart? How do you stay open to let God call you to a “course correction” when you need one?
• Does it shock you that Jeremiah spoke to God in such a blunt, pained way? In Prayer:
Does It Make Any Difference? Phillip Yancey told of a hospice chaplain who met a distraught patient in the final stages of cancer. The patient said his hope of eternal life was gone—he’d spent the previous night ranting and swearing at God. The chaplain asked, “Do you know the Christian word that describes what you were doing? The word is ‘prayer’—you spent the night praying.” “Our no-holds outbursts,” Yancey concluded, “hardly threaten God.”
Prayer: Lord God, often I’m grateful, but sometimes I’m hurt, angry or overwhelmed. Thank you for being a God who listens and cares when I speak, no matter in what inner state I come to you. Amen.

Insight from Janelle Gregory

Janelle Gregory serves on the Resurrection staff as a Human Resources Specialist.

Out and about at The Home Depot last summer, my husband and I saw a planter box that we thought would be perfect to go behind our kitchen sink for our fresh herbs. We brought it home, put it behind the sink, and well…

Perhaps we had misjudged the amount of space behind the sink… by just a smidge.

Lesson learned: size does matter. And in no sense does it matter more than when we are talking about our understanding of the size and power of God.

When I’m faced with difficult circumstances and challenges, I tend to go to God as a last-ditch-effort. I generally prescribe the following regimen for most of my problems. 1. I try to solve it first. 2. I might get others involved. 3. I’ll search the internet for possible solutions (Unless it’s medical. Even the tiniest symptoms can be something deadly, so the only sure diagnosis you can get from googling medical symptoms is that of becoming a hypochondriac) 4. I’ll try solving the issue on my own again. 5. Give God a shot at it.

I don’t even know why I don’t go to God first. My biggest hunch is that just like the herb planter behind my sink, I feel my problems are too big for God to handle. I recently read something by Mark Batterson that hit home with me:

“Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our biggest problems can be traced back to an in adequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem.”

Much of the time, I reduce God to the size of my problems – and probably even down from there. So today let’s make an effort to right-size God, knowing that His power is robust, His wisdom is ingenious, His love is penetrating, and He is more than big enough to handle anything we give Him.
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