For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Mark 1
What did Jesus do after ministering to people late into the night? Why do you think he did that? When do you make time to be alone with God? We have all kinds of excuses for not spending time alone with God. Life is busy; it’s hard to do! But Jesus didn’t make excuses. He made a way to spend time alone with His Father. I think this is especially important in times like this particular case with Jesus. He had just expended a lot of energy – mental, emotional, Spiritual, and physical – with a full night of ministering to those in need. When we empty ourselves out like that, we need to seek God to fill us back up again. When we experience victory, we need to prepare for the attack that is sure to follow. Sure, it’s hard. But life without that active connection to God is even harder.
Jer. 25-26
What had God done again and again, and what had Israel failed to do? How do you listen to God? What does this story tell you about Jeremiah? What do verses 3-4 tell you about God? Humans, by nature, tend to be outcome oriented. That is, we judge the good or bad, success or failure, right or wrong of our decisions and actions based on the results. I am learning that this isn’t generally a good thing. There are far too many factors beyond our knowledge and control to make such determinations reliably. Additionally, the scope of our experience is just too small to set it as any kind of standard by which to judge.
I mention this because we often do things that aren’t good, wise, or right but we get away with them. They result in something we like or want without adverse consequences, so we wrongly deem the action successful. This is what I see in Israel. Jeremiah prophesied to them for twenty-three years – twenty-three!! That’s a long time. But the people didn’t see any of the bad things he said coming to pass. They were getting away with their chosen lifestyle, so they saw no reason to change it. The longer God delayed, the less likely they were to listen to His message. They put their own limited experience above God’s truth and made their own desires the standard for their lives.
For those of us who recognize sovereign God as the standard for everything, we still need to watch for this tendency. We see it in the early Church, and the New Testament is full of warning against it. We know that Jesus will return to collect those who belong to Him and execute God’s judgment on the rest of the world. But God delays. Life gets busy. Life gets hard. Our faith waivers. We see the wicked riding high while the righteous struggle. We begin to question. This is why Jesus told all those parables we looked at recently about staying awake, alert, and ready. As Paul said, we need to keep looking forward, past our immediate circumstances and outcomes, to the promised and therefore certain end of the story.