Read Through the Bible in a Year 2018 Day 224: God For Us or God Against Us

Good morning, everyone!

Today I read Jeremiah 4-6.

And God is angry.

Jeremiah 6:11 - But I am full of the wrath of the LORD; I am weary with holding it in.

How terrifying would it be to hear God say that? To hear Him say that He is full of wrath and tired of holding it back?

I would be quaking in my boots.

I confess that I don't always reverence God the way that I should. If I did, I would never sin, because I would always be in such awe of His glory and His power that I couldn't even contemplate it.

But I do fear Him. He is awesome. He is mighty. His power knows no limits. 

But thankfully He is also merciful.

He was willing to pardon Israel if they repented and turned from their wickedness. Alas, He knew they would not. And so He purposed to weed out the wickedness from their midst by allowing them to be overtaken by other nations. Yet, He would keep a remnant for Himself, for they are His people.

We are His people. He is just. He is merciful. He will forgive us when we sincerely ask. But He is a jealous God, and He doesn't want us to serve anyone or anything above Him. And if we do, He will allow us to go our own way. However, He will not bless us while we are doing wrong. And that can lead to calamity in our lives.

And I'm not talking about trials or storms, either. I'm talking about serious calamity.

I've been there. I've been to the place where nothing was going right and there didn't seem to be a point to life. Where I had no purpose. No joy. No peace.

But God is faithful and merciful. And when I turned my life back over to Him, tattered and torn, mistakes and all, He forgave me, and helped me to stand again.

It wasn't easy. Some days it still isn't easy as those things I had given my life to sometimes still call to me. But the war gets easier with every victory. And when you allow God to fight for you, Satan cannot win.

I don't know about you, but my life is so much better now that God is fighting for me, and I'm not fighting Him.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow when I read Jeremiah 7-9.