Today I was taken to the book of Jeremiah who was called by God to go and speak to His people. That mission? To call God’s people to return and repent and follow Him wholeheartedly with clean hearts. But they refused...it was like “talk to the hand.”

Over and over again God, through the prophet Jeremiah, promised that if they would return, He would receive them, heal them, forgive them, restore them… God also warned what would happen to those who refused to acknowledge God as God and return to Him. Judgment and even destruction.

Listen to how God describes His people...those called by His name.

“From the least of them even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain, and from the prophet, even to the priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, saying ‘Peace, peace, but there is no peace. Were they ashamed because of the abomination (sin) they have done? They were not even ashamed at all. They did not even know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall at the time that I punish them, they shall be cast down, says the Lord. Thus says the Lord, stand by the ways and see and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is, and walk-in it; and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.”

Oh, sweet friends, have we as God’s people become like those in Jeremiah’s time who were not ashamed of our sin and no longer even know how to blush? Immediately my mind goes to the children’s song “O Be Careful Little Eyes.” You see, all day long our eyes, ears, minds can be led away, astray and the further we go down those paths our love for the Lord grows cold. The more we see, hear and have our minds focused on our own fleshly desires and the ways of the world, the more desensitized we become to God’s ways until we no longer even blush when we see, hear, say, think, and do…

Let me close this rather long post with words from Jeremiah that changed my life. Perhaps they have changed yours or might change yours. I imagine most of you have read and perhaps even declared over your life and prayed Jeremiah 29:11 which says: “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, [plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

Who doesn’t love Jeremiah 29:11, right? But think about it in the context I just shared with you about the condition of the hearts of God's people and Him calling His people to return to Him and what would happen to them if they kept on refusing. Judgment and destruction would keep coming.

His plans for them (and us) were not a calamity but their welfare, for a future and a hope. No, His plan for them and for us is revealed in the verses that follow Jeremiah 29:11 which says “Then, you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.”

What a glorious promise for God’s people then and now! Return! Let’s be ashamed, let’s learn to blush again. Let’s call upon our merciful God, pray to Him because He will listen to us! Glory be. Let’s search for Him with all of our hearts so that we might be spiritually restored. Amen?