Jeremiah

Job 1:1-5:27

“You will be safe from slander and have no fear when destruction comes. You will laugh at destruction and famine; wild animals will not terrify you. You will be at peace with the stones of the field, and its wild animals will be at peace with you. You will know that your home is safe. When you survey your possessions, nothing will be missing. You will have many children; your descendants will be as plentiful as grass! You will go to the grave at a ripe old age, like a sheaf of grain harvested at the proper time!” Job 5:21-26

I don’t know about any of you all, but this last week has been a really hard week! Right now I am completely and totally emotionally spent. It has taken all of my time and attention just to simply get from one thing to the next this week. Leaving me breathless and exhausted at the end of the day. Not only have I been busy, I’ve been heavily spiritually tested. I have no clue how well I did on those tests, and right now I hardly care. I’m just ready for them to be OVER! I’m weary.

And yet at the exact same time, to look back through this week, I can plainly see the footprints of God in the sand. Do you know what I mean? Are you familiar with the cleft of the rock story from Exodus?

The LORD replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for I look favorably on you and I know you by name.”

Moses responded, “Then show me your glorious presence.”

The LORD replied, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will call out My name, Yahweh, before you. For I will show mercy to anyone I choose, and I will show compassion to anyone I choose. But you may not look directly at My face, for no one may see Me and live.” The LORD continued, “Look, stand near Me on this rock. As My glorious presence passes by, I will hide you in the crevice of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove My hand and let you see Me from behind. But My face will not be seen.” (Exodus 33:17-23)

My friend, I have found that there are times in life when you find yourself backed against the crevice of the rock and God’s hand; aka a rock and a hard place. It’s hard, it’s dark; it’s terrifying… all because you’re being protected from DEATH by God Almighty as He passes before you proclaiming His glorious name. His hand is never removed from your eyes until He has fully passed and the danger is over. At which point you can emerge from the cleft of the rock and see Him from behind. You can plainly see His footprints on the sand before your feet. You can press your toes into them and feel immensely small in the midst of such a great and glorious God.

If you’re week has been like mine, I encourage you to take the time today to do just that. Look at those moments that were hard and dark and scary and press your toes into them. Look at them and the impressions that they left on your soul. Did you hear His name proclaimed from those situations and their aftermath? If you haven’t heard it yet, then you’re simply not quite out of the cleft yet then are you?

When you are a Child of the One True King you can laugh at destruction, you can shrug troubles off all because you know that in the end, it’s not all about you and what you’re doing, or how you’re doing. When it all comes down to it, it’s all about Jesus and what He did and what He’s doing. Fear not Dear One, whatever is happening right now, it’s not on your shoulders. It’s on His.

There’s a powerful statement that God had Moses make in the seconds before He opened up the Red Sea and I feel it’s important to remind you of it today. Moses and the Israelites were standing before the Red Sea with Pharaoh’s army pressing down upon them with no real route of escape. They’re terrified. And in that moment, juuuust before God provides their way out, He tells them.

“Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the LORD rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today, will never be seen again. The LORD Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.” Exodus 14:13-14

And wouldn’t you know it, moments later the Red Sea parted making a way where before there had been no way. They all crossed the Sea and just hours later, when the last Hebrew foot had been set upon the shore; the Sea closed back up and swallowed the entire Egyptian army. And none of them were ever seen or heard from again.

My dear friend, just stay calm. The LORD fights for you. And the troubles that you see today will never be seen or heard from again. Yes, God really IS that good.

Jeremiah 51:12-52:34

“I will avenge you.” Jeremiah 51:36

If I were to summarize today’s Word of the Day into one sentence that would be it! Actually, if I were to summarize the entire book of Jeremiah that is how I would do it! And boy is that a sentence I needed to hear today too! I don’t know about you all, but here in the Knochel household the battle has been fierce lately. There are a LOT of things that I feel the Enemy has stolen from us lately that I want back by golly! Although, I hadn’t really thought about it that way until I read today’s Word of the Day.

When I read:

“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says:

‘Babylon is like wheat on a threshing floor, about to be trampled. In just a little while her harvest will begin.’

‘King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has eaten and crushed us and drained us of strength. He has swallowed us like a great monster and filled his belly with our riches. He has thrown us out of our own country. Make Babylon suffer as she made us suffer,’ say the people of Zion.

‘Make the people of Babylonia pay for spilling our blood,’ says Jerusalem.”

My friends, Babylon is a symbol of Satan. God may have said all these things about Babylon long ago, but He is saying them again to us today! The Enemy may have been eating and crushing you and draining you of your strength. He may have swallowed you like a great monster and filled his belly with your riches. He may even have thrown you out of your own country. But HE will suffer for it. He will get a belly ache from eating us. His fingers will throb from crushing us. His strength will be drained from wearying us. He may have swallowed up our riches like a great monster but God will “make him vomit up all he has eaten” (Jeremiah 51:44). He may have thrown us out of our own country but God will gather us up and return us to it, obliterating the Enemy in the process. Satan WILL pay!

It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. Satan will pay for what he has done to YOU. He will regret the day that he ever laid eyes on you. It will come, as sure as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west every day. Satan’s punishment will come and it will be sure. Trust in Jesus my friends. He’s got this; whatever it is that you’re going through. Whatever it is that is causing you to lose sleep at the moment, He’s got it under control. You can trust Him. I promise.

Jeremiah 47:1-49:22

“How can it be still when the LORD has sent it on a mission?” Jeremiah 47:7

“Cursed are those who refuse to do the LORD’s work,” Jeremiah 48:10

I had to share these particular verses today because I feel their “pain”. As one who has been sent on a mission by the LORD, I know that it is VERY difficult to be still in regards toward that mission. It is extremely difficult for me NOT to write. And then you get to the second verse, and again I can totally relate to it! Although it is EXTREMELY hard for me to refuse the LORD, sadly it isn’t impossible. And yet at any point when I am refusing Him, I feel horrible about doing it. My conscience won’t let me rest. Honestly, because I know better. I know deep down what it is that the LORD is asking me to do; and I know that because He is the one asking then it MUST be the best choice for me and for everyone involved even if it doesn’t make sense in my head. And I get no relief, no rest, until I do the very thing that He is requesting of me. And then OH THE RELEASE that follows!!! The blissful release that comes from doing the very thing that you had been resisting all that time! Oh… it’s heaven!

My beloved friend, I don’t know what you’ve been resisting. But you do. Right now the Holy Spirit is convicting you of it. Let it go. Forgive that person you’re holding resentment towards. Tell that person that thing you’ve been meaning to tell them but were afraid of how they would react. Do that thing you’ve feared doing, take that plunge you’ve feared taking. Leap out off of that precipice from which you’ve been standing and staring into the unknown abyss just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Take that leap of faith that He’s been asking you to take. He IS faithful and He will lift you up on eagle’s wings and help you to fly rather than fall to your doom.

In our family we are VERY into the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings stories. (If you’re into fantastic adventure stories, these are for you! Not just the movies my friends, the books!) Anyway, in many of the most dramatic and pivotal parts of these stories, just when you think that the heroes are sunk, doomed to suffer a horrid fate. The eagles show up. They show up, and at some points, literally scoop the falling heroes out of the air, saving them from death by a feather. It’s always beautiful and usually I find myself taking a deep breath in those moments because I’ve been holding it, before it happened.

Have you been holding your breath waiting to see what will happen next? Have you been sitting with bated breath tense from the battle and feeling like you’re falling through thin air? Then get ready for a sudden stop! Not as you hit hard pavement, but the soft feathers of the Father’s wings as He flies beneath you and fully supports you like nothing else in this world ever could! He has called you to something. Something difficult, challenging, maybe it doesn’t even make sense in your head, but in your heart you know with a knowledge that passes all understanding that it’s right. If He has called you to it, then He will guide you through it. I know it’s terribly cliché, but it’s True. God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips the called.

“Fear not Little One, My Beloved, for I love YOU!”

Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. This I declare about the LORD; He alone is my refuge, my place of safety; He is my God, and I trust Him. For He will rescue you from every trap and protect you from deadly disease. He will cover you with His feathers. He will shelter you with His wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection. Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night, nor the arrow that flies in the day. Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday. Though a thousand fall at your side, though ten thousand are dying around you, these evils will not touch you. Just open your eyes, and see how the wicked are punished.

If you make the LORD your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your home. For He will order His angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone. You will trample upon lions and cobras; you will crush fierce lions and serpents under your feet!

The LORD says, “I will rescue those who love Me. I will protect those who trust in My name. When they call on Me, I will answer, I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them. I will reward them with a long life and give them My salvation.” – Psalm 91

Jeremiah 39:1-43:13

“He will spread His royal canopy over them.” Jeremiah 43:10

So, I am taking this verse COMPLETELY out of context today, but this phrase is precisely what is happening today too. His royal canopy is spread over me today and that banner over me is love. I opened this morning with the prayer, “Lord, search my heart and show me what’s inside. I need to know. If there is anything inside me that needs to come out please remove it today.” Through the process of this day I have come to realize that as terrified as I am that no one will come to the book signing this weekend, I am equally terrified that they will!

Who am I to have someone’s ear and tell them, “Thus saith the LORD”? Who am I to go out and preach this wonderful news of a King who loves us so much that He would send His one and only Son to die on our behalf so that He could spend eternity with us? Who am I to have ANYONE listening to a single word I have to say about anything? I am nothing but a fragile weak woman who is just as human as the rest of us. But the one thing I have going for me is that I KNOW that I am weak and in need of a Lord and Savior. And I have little shame in saying so either. And perhaps that is where my strength really lies. I am weak and I know it. And what’s more, I know that God is counting on me to be weak. And in some small manner, that is a relief. Actually, it’s a huge relief to know that He understands that I am weak and unable to carry this weight on my own. I certainly do NOT want to try and lift this burden by myself!

I’m terrified of who I might become with the knowledge of just how many souls are reading what I write. Pride can strangle a ministry if given the opportunity and I certainly don’t want that! And yet, God knows that that has been my chief fear from the very inception of my writing career. I fear celebrity and it’s destruction of families and individuals alike. But as much as I fear these things, I MUST trust in the God who called me to such things in order to use me to my fullest potential. In my time with Him today, in answer to all these fears, He pointed me to 2 Corinthians 12:7-10:

“So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. Each time He said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me. That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses and in the insults, hardships, persecutions, and troubles that I suffer for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God, in His amazing grace protected Paul from Pride. So will He not also protect me from the enemy I fear the most as well? I pray so!!! Although I do pray that He doesn’t have to go so far as to send a “messenger from Satan to torment me” in order to do it!