JEREMIAH 16:10-12 – “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, 12 and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.

THEME OF THE DAY. WE FACE THE SAME DANGER. In today’s scripture, we find God’s people of old experiencing the pain of His chastening hand. God is displeased at their waywardness. And in His love, He disciplines them. As He will with us. The writer of Hebrews informs us of this loving, yes painful, but loving work of God in His children – “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives.” 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:6-11).

As we experience the pain of our God’s correcting rod, let us not lose sight that it is for our good. And when it comes to being disciplined by God, He will do so for two things. First, God chastens us as part of the Christian life. We know how much we are not like Christ. So in our daily walks with Him, the Lord will chasten us to develop His character in us. For instance, He will chasten our pride to produce humility; chasten our impatience to produce patience; and chasten our selfishness to produce selflessness. And this work is not because we are willfully sinning in need of His chastening. This is His work of “sanctification” making us like Jesus.

However, there is another side of God’s chastening. This isn’t about growth but correction, and painful correction at that. This is caused by our willful sinning against Him that prompts His discipline. And yes, Christians willfully sin. Sadly. We feed the flesh, give into worldliness, and neglect obeying known commands.

In today’s scripture, God’s people of old reveal specific sinful actions that bring about the heavy hand of God’s correction. There are multiple sins they committed against Him; idolatry, failure to keep His Word, and following their wills, not His. But these are really symptoms of the bigger and most important area of sin they committed. Twice the Lord states it – “You have forsaken me.” And their sin is also our daily temptation. Oh, not a one of us will say, “Forsake the Lord Jesus? No way. I will never do this.” Be careful. Peter said the same thing. The temptation to commit the sin of forsaking the Lord is subtle. We don’t have to make a public announcement of denying the faith and walk away from Christ to commit the sin of forsaking Him. No, something else is more our danger. It is replacing Him in our lives with an attachment and affection for someone or something else above Him. Think about it . . . are we allowing another human being or something to have a greater hold on our hearts than Jesus? If so, then we are forsaking Him. We really are. He will not share the chief place in our hearts with anyone or anything. All must be forsaken for Him.

As we see the sins of God’s people of old, all flowing from their forsaking of Him, pause, and ask the Lord to search our hearts. Are we being tempted toward committing the same sin? It may easily come into our lives. All we need to do is to allow someone or something to replace Jesus on the throne in our hearts.

PRAYER: “Father, protect me from my flesh, the world and devil who constantly seek to draw me away from You.”

QUOTE: “We must see life as daily warfare. We will never know an attack-free day from our spiritual foes.”