Deceived

March 19, 2019

Sometimes I feel like the prophet Jeremiah whose plaintive lament echoes within my mind, “LORD, you tricked me, and I was fooled. You are stronger than I am, so you won. I have become a joke; everyone makes fun of me all day long.” —Jeremiah 20:7 NCV

Jeremiah tells us he was chosen by God before he was even born, and was faithful in bearing God’s message to his people. But nobody wanted to hear it; he was rejected, ridiculed, jailed, beaten, and kidnapped. He has been called “the weeping prophet” for his continual lamentations for Israel. His was not an easy life; if modern televangelists gave a Jeremiah message, their ministries would fold like a cheap suit. 

My friend and I talked today about what everyday life is like for him. He has chosen to remain faithful in the face of tremendous challenges that would take out lesser men. He doesn’t complain and says he would do it all over again if offered the opportunity. But we wondered together about where is the power of the Gospel to change people, the power of Christ to heal body and mind in circumstances that seem intractable. Neither of us could come up with an answer; it’s a question I’ve asked many times over the years when in spite of faithful prayers, circumstances only worsen and people’s hearts harden. 

I’ll be preaching on faith this Sunday, and have had to take a hard look at what it is...and isn’t. Hebrews 11:1 gives us the biblical definition of faith as “the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” It’s that choice to look beyond what we see all around us and believe that there is a greater destiny than what is immediately apparent. We choose to look deeper and higher and farther than those who see only what this world offers, believing that as St. Paul said, “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory to be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).