Jeremiah 23:21-22 – The Fruitful Abiding
From Jeremiah 23…
21
“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22
But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way. Jeremiah 23:21-22, New King James Version
V. S. Naipaul in The New Yorker describes the process of bonding with a stray cat left guarded by hard experience. "It was as though, feeling my hand, he felt my benignity."
God is THAT sure of the power of His own Presence. Having indicted throughout Jeremiah 23 how far Judah's spiritual shepherds have strayed from their calling, He declares in Jeremiah 23:21-22 that failing to spend time in His Presence was the pivotal neglect. If they had stood in His counsel, He says, and simply caused His people to hear what the shepherds heard from God they would have been healed themselves in that process. They would have felt his benignity, and so would have their flocks.
Thomas Merton in No Man Is an Island concurs, finding, "Simple intention is a divine medicine, a balm that soothes the powers of our soul wounded by inordinate self-expression. It heals our actions in their secret infirmity. It draws our strength to the hidden summit of our being, and bathes our spirit in the infinite mercy of God. It wounds our souls in order to heal them in Christ, for a simple intention manifests the presence and action of Christ in our hearts."
Whatever of the world's wisdom these pseudo-spiritual leaders shared which cause their hungry flocks to scatter is the inordinate expression of which Merton speaks. Time in His Presence seeps us in His intention, His good purposes, breaks down our defenses and pretenses.
Such renewal in His sovereign grace brings us again to trust, and then to trustworthiness before and in the lives of men. Having experienced Him intimately again, and perhaps more aware that we are unworthy of such a consecration, we emerge humbled, more supple, more useful.
Those who hear our testimony can relate to the breaking down of our self-certainty. They have failed as well. Our patina kept them at a distance, but when we speak honestly, gently, of the Lord drawing us into His Presence and restoring our commission by His grace, people will hear what their hearts have longed for.
Our words will have been softened by experience without losing any of their potency to transform. God's Word, even through the likes of us His ministers, will accomplish what He sends it forth to accomplish.
Those who hear us by God's mercy and grace will note the congruity He has aligned between our message and our lives. Declares No Man Is an Island again, "A man only lives as a man when he knows the truth and loves what he knows and acts according to what he loves. In this way he BECOMES the truth that he loves. So we 'become' Christ by knowledge and love."
What infirmity do we think we are hiding by going through the motions of our ministry without first abiding with Him as our own Good Shepherd? What Word do we fail to hear, first for ourselves and then for those we feed, because we hurry through out of either self-confidence or guilt. Linger, friend, and allow His Word to do its turning work, His counsel to wind its way into the wayward valuations to which our souls are prone.
21
“I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
22
But if they had stood in My counsel,
And had caused My people to hear My words,
Then they would have turned them from their evil way. Jeremiah 23:21-22, New King James Version
V. S. Naipaul in The New Yorker describes the process of bonding with a stray cat left guarded by hard experience. "It was as though, feeling my hand, he felt my benignity."
God is THAT sure of the power of His own Presence. Having indicted throughout Jeremiah 23 how far Judah's spiritual shepherds have strayed from their calling, He declares in Jeremiah 23:21-22 that failing to spend time in His Presence was the pivotal neglect. If they had stood in His counsel, He says, and simply caused His people to hear what the shepherds heard from God they would have been healed themselves in that process. They would have felt his benignity, and so would have their flocks.
Thomas Merton in No Man Is an Island concurs, finding, "Simple intention is a divine medicine, a balm that soothes the powers of our soul wounded by inordinate self-expression. It heals our actions in their secret infirmity. It draws our strength to the hidden summit of our being, and bathes our spirit in the infinite mercy of God. It wounds our souls in order to heal them in Christ, for a simple intention manifests the presence and action of Christ in our hearts."
Whatever of the world's wisdom these pseudo-spiritual leaders shared which cause their hungry flocks to scatter is the inordinate expression of which Merton speaks. Time in His Presence seeps us in His intention, His good purposes, breaks down our defenses and pretenses.
Such renewal in His sovereign grace brings us again to trust, and then to trustworthiness before and in the lives of men. Having experienced Him intimately again, and perhaps more aware that we are unworthy of such a consecration, we emerge humbled, more supple, more useful.
Those who hear our testimony can relate to the breaking down of our self-certainty. They have failed as well. Our patina kept them at a distance, but when we speak honestly, gently, of the Lord drawing us into His Presence and restoring our commission by His grace, people will hear what their hearts have longed for.
Our words will have been softened by experience without losing any of their potency to transform. God's Word, even through the likes of us His ministers, will accomplish what He sends it forth to accomplish.
Those who hear us by God's mercy and grace will note the congruity He has aligned between our message and our lives. Declares No Man Is an Island again, "A man only lives as a man when he knows the truth and loves what he knows and acts according to what he loves. In this way he BECOMES the truth that he loves. So we 'become' Christ by knowledge and love."
What infirmity do we think we are hiding by going through the motions of our ministry without first abiding with Him as our own Good Shepherd? What Word do we fail to hear, first for ourselves and then for those we feed, because we hurry through out of either self-confidence or guilt. Linger, friend, and allow His Word to do its turning work, His counsel to wind its way into the wayward valuations to which our souls are prone.
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