Jeremiah 19 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 19.

Meditate on and memorize this phrase from verse 15.

They have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My Words.

While Jeremiah was at the potter’s house, God told him to buy an earthenware jar.  He took the jar along with some of the elders and senior priests to the valley of Ben-Hinnom, the valley where the people sacrificed their children by fire as part of their Baal worship.  The elders and senior priests should have taught and upheld truth to the people; rather they allowed heinous atrocities to take place.  God promised calamity.  Jeremiah spoke the Word of the LORD to the men then broke the jar in front of them to represent the irreparable breaking God would do to the people.

Jeremiah then walked to the court of the LORD’s house, which was not far from the valley of Slaughter, and spoke to all the people.  His sermon was simple; God promised to bring on the city of Jerusalem and all its towns the entire calamity because the people had stiffened their necks so as not to heed His Words (Jeremiah 19:15).

“Oh generation, heed the Word of the LORD (Jeremiah 2:31)!”  If you are a teacher/preacher of God’s Word, do not be afraid to speak the Word of Truth!  People are perishing for lack of knowledge of the Truth of God’s Word (Hosea 4:6).  If you are a hearer of the Word of God, heed and obey what God tells you to do. 

Pray Jeremiah 19:11 and 15 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, let _________ and me live to please You,

 so You do not have to break us like one breaking a potter’s vessel,

which cannot again be repaired.  

Do not let us stiffen our necks.  May we heed Your Words.

In Your name, Jesus~”

Jeremiah 18 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 18.

Meditate on and memorize this phrase from verse 6.

Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand,

so are you in My hand.

God sent Jeremiah to the potter’s house for another sermon illustration.  Jeremiah watched the potter remake a spoiled vessel into a vessel that pleased him.  God told Jeremiah He would use calamity to reshape Judah into a nation pleasing to Him (Jeremiah 18:11). 

The people responded to God’s Word and invitation to repent was willful disobedience.

We are going to follow our own plans,

and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.

—Jeremiah 18:12b

God called them appalling (Jeremiah 18:13).  Their response to the LORD was audacious!  They forgot God and worshipped idols.  They devised evil against Jeremiah.   God promised calamity, and when it came they would only see God’s back and not His face (Jeremiah 18:13-20).

Hear and heed the Word of the LORD!  If you are a child of God, He will mold you into a vessel pleasing to Him.  You have a choice to make.  You can be a malleable vessel, easily molded by the Potter into exactly what He intends you to be.  Or you can be a stubborn vessel fighting His every touch.  It is a pathetic place to be when God fashions calamity against a person because they refuse to be fashioned by their Creator and Savior.

Pray Jeremiah 18:4 and 6 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, forgive _________ and me for being spoiled.

 Make us into the vessel that pleases You.

 We want to be clay in Your hands that You mold,

not clay that You have to deal with. 

In Your Name, Jesus~” 

Jeremiah 17 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 17.

Meditate on and memorize verse 7.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD

 and whose trust is the LORD.

God gave a sharp contrast between trusting in mankind and trusting in Him.  If you trust in people, if you make flesh your strength, and if your heart turns away from the LORD, you are cursed.  If you trust in the LORD, and He is your trust, you are blessed, and you will be like a tree planted by water that is not anxious even in a year of drought but will continue to bear fruit (Jeremiah 17:5-8).

God’s Word makes the right choice obvious.  Why would anyone choose a life of curses instead of God’s blessings?  Because: “the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick” (Jeremiah 17:9).  Sin takes you to pathetically cursed places. 

Jeremiah knew the only One who cures sin sickness.  He cried out, “Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for You are my praise!” (Jeremiah 17:14).

The people kept asking Jeremiah, “where is the Word of the LORD?” (Jeremiah 17:15).  They had His Word; they refused to hear and heed it.  You, too, have the Word of the LORD.  Do you choose to listen and obey what God is telling you?

Pray Jeremiah 17:7-8 and 14 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“Make ________ and me people who trust in You, LORD.

LORD, be our trust!

Make us like a tree planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream. 

Do not let us fear when the heat comes, but let our leaves be green. 

Do not let us be anxious in a year of drought nor cease to yield fruit.

Heal us, O LORD, and we will be healed; save us and we will be saved,

for You are our praise,

LORD Jesus, in whose name I pray~”

Jeremiah 16 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 16.

Meditate on and memorize verse 21.

Behold, I am going to make them know—

this time I will make them know My power and My might;

 and they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Up to this point in Israel’s history, the nation was famous for the LORD bringing them out slavery in Egypt.  God was about to banish them to Babylon because of the stubbornness of their evil heart and refusal to listen to Him.  From that point on, they would be remembered for the LORD restoring them to their own land from Babylon and all the other countries He scattered them as punishment for forsaking Him (Jeremiah 16:10-15).  The Babylonian exile became a cornerstone in Israel’s history.

God was and still is unrelenting in His pursuit of Israel.  His eyes are on all their ways.  He brings calamity on them rather than allowing them to continue in their iniquity because He wants the people to know that they know that they know He is the LORD (Jeremiah 16:10, 17, 21).

The LORD pursues you and those you love with the same diligence.  He wants you to know that you know that you know He is the LORD and in Him is power and might. He wants you to be like Jeremiah who intimately knew God as his LORD, his strength, his stronghold, and his refuge in the day of trouble (Jeremiah 16:19). 

To whom would God compare you?  Are you like the Israelites asking, “For what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us?” (Jeremiah 16:10). Or are you like Jeremiah knowing and trusting God?

Pray Jeremiah 16:19 and 21 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, You are _______ and my strength and stronghold. 

You are our refuge in the day of distress. 

_________ has inherited nothing but falsehood, futility, and things of no profit. 

Make them know—this time make them know Your power and might.

 Make them know Your name is the LORD.

In whose name I pray, LORD Jesus~”

Jeremiah 15 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 15.

Meditate on and memorize this phrase from verse 19.

Extract the precious from the worthless.

The people of Judah chose to forsake God, and they kept going backward.  God grew tired of relenting on behalf of those living in unrelenting sin, so He declared their destiny in Jeremiah 15.  The people were destined for death, the sword, famine, and captivity.   God would bring anguish and dismay on them (Jeremiah 15:1-8).

Jeremiah chose not to forsake the LORD.  Notice his response to the Word of God:

Your Words were found and I ate them,

and Your Words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart,

for I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.

—Jeremiah 15:16

God was pleased with Jeremiah and promised to save and deliver him from the hand of the wicked.  He promised to redeem him from the grasp of the violent (Jeremiah 15:20-21).

Would you describe your life as going backward or forward?  What is your relationship to God and His Word?  Are you clinging to the LORD and His Word of Truth?  Do you devour God’s Words?  Is the Bible a joy to you and the delight of your heart?

Pray Jeremiah 15:19-21 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, ________ and I want to return to You and be restored to You.

 Let us stand before You.  Help us to extract the precious from the worthless. 

Make us Your spokesmen.  Make us a fortified wall of bronze,

and though others may fight against us, do not let them prevail over us. 

Be with us to save us and deliver us. 

Deliver us from the hand of the wicked and redeem us from the grasp of the violent.

For Your name’s sake, Jesus~” 

Jeremiah 14 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 14.

Meditate on and memorize this phrase from verse 9.

You are in our midst, O LORD,

 and we are called by Your name;

 do not forsake us!

Sin took its toll on not only the people of Judah but on the land and the animals.  There was severe drought in the land.  The water was gone; the ground was cracked, and the animals abandoned their newborn babies because there was no grass. Drought was part of God’s punishment for sin (Jeremiah 14:1-6). 

Amazingly the prophets prophesied in the midst of the drought that there would not be a famine.  In the name of the LORD, they said everything was going to be fine, that the people would have lasting peace.  God said these prophets were preaching falsehood, futility, and the deception of their own minds.  He promised to pour out their wickedness on them (Jeremiah 14:13-16).

As you read the Word of the LORD in Jeremiah, does the attitude of the people and the false preachers remind you of the days you are living in?  Do you listen to teachers who tell you God just wants you to be happy, prosperous, and blessed?  Do you believe you can do whatever makes you feel good with no regard for what God thinks about your behavior?

Hear and heed the Word of the LORD:

So the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 

When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry;

 and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering,

I am not going to accept them.

 Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine, and pestilence.”

—Jeremiah 14:11-12

Do not be deceived!  God hates and punishes sin.  God has not changed His mind about what is sin and what is not sin.  Just because current laws or religious teachings legalize and condone sin, God still punishes those who participate in and give hearty approval to it.  Surround yourself with God’s Word and with people who are not afraid to teach what the LORD says. 

Pray Jeremiah 14:20-22 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“We know our wickedness, O LORD, __________ and I have sinned against You.

Do not despise us for Your name’s sake; do not disgrace the throne of Your glory.

Remember and do not annul Your covenant with us.

We hope in You, O LORD our God.

Jeremiah 13 ~ Praying God's Word

Please read Jeremiah 13.

Meditate on and memorize verse 15.

Listen and give heed, do not be haughty,

 for the LORD has spoken.

God told Jeremiah to create an interesting sermon illustration.  Jeremiah took a waistband, put it around his waist, went to the Euphrates River, and hid it in a rock crevice.  After many days, he returned to the Euphrates and dug out the waistband, which was totally ruined (Jeremiah 13:4-7).

The waistband was a picture of Judah’s pride.  Like a waistband clings to the waist, the people clung to their foolish pride instead of trusting in and clinging to God.  The people refused to listen to God; they walked in the stubbornness of their hearts and served other gods.  In their wickedness, God declared them totally worthless just like the worthless waistband.  If they had listened to God and clung to Him, they could have been a people of renown, praise, and glory (Jeremiah 13:10-11). 

Jeremiah begged the people to listen the LORD and not cling to their pride.  He ended up weeping bitterly because the people chose haughtiness instead of obedience (Jeremiah 13:15-17).  They were taken captive by the Babylonians and marched from Jerusalem to Babylon.  Their route took them beside the Euphrates River where Jeremiah had buried a waistband and come up with, what at the time had seemed to be, a ridiculous sermon illustration.  “Oh, if we had only listened and heeded the Word of the LORD before it was too late!”   

God’s Word is timeless truth.  He has carefully preserved it, so you do not repeat mistakes from the past.  Hear and heed the Word of the LORD!  To what do you cling?  Do you believe the lie of Satan that you can be a self-made person?  In haughtiness, have you stopped listening the LORD? 

Pray Jeremiah 13:11 and 15-16 over yourself and those for whom you stand guard as a faithful, prayerful watchman (Isaiah 62:6-7).

“LORD, as the waistband clings to the waist of a man,

__________ and I want to cling to You. 

We want to be Your people for Your renown, praise, and glory. 

Help us listen to You!  We want to listen, give heed, and not be haughty. 

We give glory to You, God! 

Do not let our feet stumble.

In Your name, Jesus~”