Even If i Walk Alone

Instructing and encouraging you to live your life as a disciple of Jesus

Jeremiah

Are We Really Any Better?

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As you read the Bible, it’s easy to shake your head at some of the characters. We think we would never behave that way or make the choices they did. Knowing what we know of Jesus today, I think it’s easy to be confident we would react better if we were in their place. Let me assure you, none of us would. I know this because I know myself and I know what I observe in others every day.

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Perhaps our actions are even worse than those of our ancestors. We have the complete Word and revelation of God in our hands and our native language (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This phenomenon is only a few hundred years old. None of those we read about in the Bible had access to the Word like we do. Despite that, our commitment to Jesus is no better than theirs.

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Always Listening

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With the number of apps and devices listening to everything you say, there is a growing concern about the death of privacy. It has been well-founded that many of these devices are listening even when you turn them off or restrict their permissions. Combine this with the growing number of cameras in your home and in public, and it’s safe to say privacy in modern cultures is a thing of the past.

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Someone or something is always listening. Someone or something is always watching. This makes most normal people uncomfortable, to say the least. We don’t want our most intimate words and actions to be known. But this is nothing new. From the beginning, God was always listening and watching (Psalm 94:9). You have never said or done anything that escaped His awareness (Psalm 139:1-4).

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Thus Says the Lord

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In many places in scripture we read the phrase, “Thus says the Lord”, or for those of us who grew up with the King James Version of the Bible, “Thus Saith the Lord”. In fact, it occurs over 400 times (Exodus 4:22-23, Jeremiah 2:2, Ezekiel 37:5, to name a few) throughout Scripture. God spoke His Word through the prophets and apostles so we would always know His truth and His commands.

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The question is, what will we do with what the Lord said? It not only defines how we will live today, but determines our eternal destiny. We cannot have everlasting life unless we love God, and if we love Him, we will obey His Word (John 14:15). For disciples of Jesus, “Thus says the Lord” becomes our guardrails and keeps our paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).

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Bad Advice

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There is a lot of bad advice out there. Some of the worst advice we can ever give to someone is to say, “Follow your heart.” This advice is rampant in self-help circles and the culture at large. To someone waffling between options or contemplating a career change, it sounds like wise counsel. But as is often the case, the wisdom of man is foolishness (1 Corinthians 3:18-20). Jesus never told people to follow their hearts. He told them to follow Him (John 8:12; John 12:26).

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When you follow your heart, you will be listening to your carnal desires. God’s Word says the heart is more deceitful than anything else and incurable (Jeremiah 17:9). When we follow our heart, we are deceiving ourselves. We are playing ourselves for the fool. Only by following Jesus will we ever find the peace, rest, and fulfillment that our hearts desire.

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Read Slowly

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The more I study the Bible, the more I recognize when it comes to God’s Word, we should read slowly. Scripture is replete with admonitions to meditate on the words of God. Meditating and delighting on God’s instruction is a regular theme throughout the book of Psalms (Psalm 1:1-2, Psalm 19:7-14, Psalm 77:12, Psalm 119:15, Psalm 119:23, Psalm 119:27, Psalm 119:48, Psalm 119:78, Psalm 119:97, Psalm 119:99, Psalm 119:148, Psalm 143:5)

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and many other places throughout scripture (Joshua 1:8, Jeremiah 15:16, Nehemiah 8:1-3, Matthew 7:24-25, James 1:22-25, Philippians 4:8, Colossians 3:16). The Bible is not a book meant to be read like other books. We don’t read God’s Word to get through it, but to let it marinade our souls. When we read too quickly, we often miss the details and subtle nuances. There is no part of scripture we can afford to miss or gloss over (2 Timothy 3:16).

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