Jeremiah 15:19 (Quoted from the Amplified Version)

“Therefore thus says the Lord (to Jeremiah), if you return (give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair), then I will give you again a SETTLED place of quiet and safety, and you shall be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile (cleansing your own heart from unworthy suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness), you shall be as My mouthpiece. (But do not yield to them.) Let them return to you – not you to the people.”

God’s challenge comes to me from the above scripture. When my heart reacts to circumstances coming into my life that I dislike, my refusal to say “Amen” to Father results in depression. The above scripture exhorts us to “give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair.” When I take on the cares and anxieties of circumstances, I judge God for what He has permitted and proceed in a downward spiral in my reasoning, falling out with God. I need to recognise that my first fallout is always with God.

THE REASON OF THE HEART IS THE TREASON OF THE HEART. Reasoning is based on sense knowledge which God has given to us all- common sense – sense common to us all, but it is never final and can be over-ruled at any time by the promptings of the Spirit. Guidance by circumstance is fine until the Spirit over-rules.

Our challenges are God permitted and He will use them in our individual circumstances of relationships, finance, physical etc. to do the necessary work in our hearts to bring us to that place of fullness. Ephesians 4:13 “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

Our hearts are indwelt by Jesus Christ but we can grieve Him or please Him in our daily walk of circumstances. He abides and reigns there comfortably as I yield to Him. Refusing to yield produces feelings of anxiety and stress. To be peace controlled can take a lifetime of working – but I can make the work shorter as I yield in humility, in recognition of the order of God at work in my life, taking responsibility at the first commandment of God in “not eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:16-17,”And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it: for in the day you shall eat thereof you shall surely die.”

We need to get our foundations right in God, otherwise we cannot build securely. It all went wrong in the beginning in the Garden of Eden. We can learn from this and prove God. We were never meant to know “good” or “evil” in our judgement of circumstances, just God!

GOD PERMITS IN HIS WISDOM, WHAT HE COULD PREVENT IN HIS POWER…..to do that sacred work in our hearts.

This little chorus by Beaulah Ratcliffe encourages us to “see God in all things” and enter His Rest that our lives might glorify His name.

God is doing a new thing
A new thing in my life,
It’s a work of the Spirit
To take away all strife,
To see God in all things
Takes away all pain,
To see Jesus only
Glorifies His name.