Sermonette: July 15, 2024

Sometimes, life is hard. Part I of II

Sometimes life is hard. Sometimes, life is really really hard. Somedays it’s hard to get out of bed, hard to have joy, hard to have any confidence that the life you’re living is the life God wants you to live. You wake up in the morning, and if you had one wish, it would be to start clean somewhere different. In these times, there are many passages that can give comfort. Famous passages like Psalms, Jesus in Gethsemane or Job. But this week and next week, I want to look instead at Jeremiah, and God’s response to Jeremiah when his life got truly difficult for him.

Jeremiah, also known as the “weeping prophet” was tasked with the unenviable job of warning Israel of impending destruction. The message alone was a substantial task, further complicated by the hatred Jeremiah received for sharing it. His entire life he was rejected, despised and abused for sharing the truth, even after he was proven correct. In Jeremiah 15, we finally see it come to a head with Jeremiah whining at God about how hard his life is. And here is God’s response:

19 Therefore thus says the Lord:

“If you return, I will restore you,

and you shall stand before me.

If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,

you shall be as my mouth.

They shall turn to you,

but you shall not turn to them.

20 And I will make you to this people

a fortified wall of bronze;

they will fight against you,

but they shall not prevail over you,

for I am with you

to save you and deliver you,

declares the Lord.

– Jeremiah 15:19-20

What was Jeremiah uttering that was worthless? His whining. What was precious? The Words of the Lord that Jeremiah has shared for 15 chapters. The Lord doesn’t promise ease, or comfort; but he does promise that if Jeremiah can control the whining and maximize his preaching of the truth, God will empower him to endure. Jeremiah will continue to take abuse, but God won’t let the abuse destroy him.

Sometimes life is truly hard. When life gets hard and we feel crushed, look to Jeremiah and God’s words to him. Our God isn’t the kind of God who usually bails us out; more often, he prefers to fortify us to endure. What should we do? Utter what is precious, and not what is worthless. People don’t glorify God when his followers whine about their situation, even if it’s justified. But they might just glorify God if we can share the words of life even when life is hard. And we can move forward, knowing that God wants to enable us to endure.