September 8 - Tell Me What I Want to Hear!

 Read today’s texts first: Jeremiah 42-44; Psalm 48; Revelation 13

MAXIMize YOUR DAY

When hearing from God, avoid selective listening
and responding with, “tell me anything but that!” 

No wonder Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet – no one listened to him. This passage started off as a possible exception, with the people promising to do whatever Jeremiah said. They were finally ready to do God’s will, no matter what. Ten days later Jerry returned with a surprisingly upbeat message: God promised to be their defense if they didn’t return to Egypt. Egypt represented their former life – a life of bondage to foreign rulers and false gods.

It seemed like a reasonable request to me, exactly like the one they were offered 900 years earlier right after they had escaped Pharaoh’s armies and were poised to enter their promised land. But that same fear of the unknown and comfort with their old life (how soon they forgot what it was really like) produced the same response. We’ll do anything You want Lord, except that. Tell us what we want to hear.

It seems like such a stupid response. Hadn’t they learned by now how trustworthy God is? Why didn’t they get it? While I was shaking my head at their faithlessness, I began thinking about my own. I remembered my own fear of the unknown when God first called me into ministry – “anything but that Lord! I want to be a successful businessman and have the gift of giving. I can do more by supporting others who are better suited for full-time ministry. Tell me what I want to hear.”

“Lord, I know that was a long time ago and I’ve grown up a little since then, but I still struggle with selective listening. Forgive my sporadic faith. I really do want to listen to everything You have to say to me, and I really do want to obey. May what is said of the die-hard remnant in Revelation be true for me: this calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of the saints” (10).