June 16th Reflection by Bill Lynch

Jeremiah 20:7-13
O Lord, you have enticed me,
   and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
   and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
   everyone mocks me.
For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
   I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me
   a reproach and derision all day long.
If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
   or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
   shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
   and I cannot.
For I hear many whispering:
   ‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
   All my close friends
   are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed,
   and we can prevail against him,
   and take our revenge on him.’
But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
   therefore my persecutors will stumble,
   and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
   for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour
   will never be forgotten.
O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,
   you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord;
   praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
   from the hands of evildoers.

Reflection
Jeremiah has a belly-ache session with God in these verses of scripture. Jeremiah has had enough of proclaiming God's Word and God's warning to these people that won't listen and in the midst of an expanding evil empire. God... what are you doing? God is not in control! Get with it God because I need you. I've been telling these people your Word and you have left me in the middle of this mess! God! Take control here! I thought you were in control?

We too can come to God and complain. God can take any and all of our complaints. God doesn't try to take control of every aspect of what happens in this world. In fact God gives us the freedom to live our lives making good decisions along with the bad decisions. The good decisions, I'm sure please God, but our bad decisions make us come back to God to seek God's will and God's guidance in our lives. I think God loves it when we come back as well.

So, there is nothing wrong with coming to God in a prayer of complaint. But don't expect God to be the Shell Answer Man either. Sometimes we are left to struggle with an issue or problem. It's not that God has abandoned us, but more that, God knows that he holds the final and ultimate solution. We grow in the struggle and we grow as well when we wrestle with God. It's in these times of wrestling that we see the angels of heaven come and go on the stairway that opens to heaven itself. I think God wants me to struggle with sin and the world and my life to understand that God will always be with me even in the midst of my struggle and even in the midst of my complaints about these stubborn people all around me and these evil governments and countries that try to take control of everything.

But in the end, I can rest assured that God sent his son, Jesus, to walk this struggle just as I struggle. God sent Jesus to deal with the stubborn, the ill, the sinful, the whiners and all. God sent Jesus as the solution to corrupt governments and sinful people in order to save us and give us everlasting life through a sacrifice. The sacrifice of Jesus for all. In the end God controls the outcome.

But for now, God let's the rest of us live in a world of decisions. Decisions made by me and by you and by all the people. Decisions that may even bring suffering, illness and death to myself or someone else. God leaves us to live in a universe our own way in spite of all of the controls needed for this universe to exist. And God lives and moves with us all along the way... even in death... to be with us as God escorts us into everlasting life with the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in eternity.

What more could we ask for as we seek to do the will of God each day. Maybe we will... and sometimes we won't do God's will. But God will be with us.

What a reason to praise and sing the glory of a God that grants both freedom and grants life!

"Sing to the Lord;
   praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
   from the hands of evildoers."

Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxVpInc1y5g

Prayer
Lord, as I jump into this world of decision makers, both good and bad, walk with me and lead me and guide me the best you can that I may do your will... today... tomorrow... and forever. --- Amen