Jeremiah 4:1-2 "If you will return, O Israel, return to me," declares the LORD. "If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, 2 and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives,' then the nations will be blessed by him and in him they will glory."
Israel was in a backslidden state. And God, through Jeremiah, was calling them back to Him. All of us get ourselves in a backslidden state. And it is important for us to realize it, and do something about it fast! Our mistake is we wait for ourselves, or others, to stop attending Sunday services, or totally turn our backs and our lives on the Lord, before we use the term backsliding. For me, just one day that we missed prayer or failed to read His Word, we are already backsliding. The moment we allow our fleshly ways to reign, or allow a sin to become a habit, even just for a moment, we are backsliding already. When the Holy Spirit prompts us, urges us, to come back, we need to heed His warning and do what God asks us to do.
What did God ask Israel to do? First He said “If you will return, O Israel, return to Me”. Now, we may think – isn’t that obvious, that when we return we return to God? Actually, no. Just like Israel all of us have a tendency to return to rituals, to sacrifices, to practices, instead of returning to the Lord Himself. We make that mistake many times – to experience a “revival” we go back to being active in service, making sure our Sunday attendance is spotless, and we bury ourselves in Christian activities – study of Scripture, cells, bible studies, bible school. But we don’t return to Him.
To return to the Lord is to go back to the devotion, the intimacy, that we had with the Lord. It’s that one on one, personal and unbreakable relationship that we had with the Lord. And this is not just about a “prayer time”…it’s about the 24/7 devotion of our hearts and fellowship with Him. Yes our serving the Lord, our attendance on Sundays, our cells, bible studies and even deeper theological studies do help. But these should be more a fruit of our devotion and fellowship, rather than the very root of our walk with God.
Let us return to Him, not return to “church”, or to Christian activities, return to our love, devotion and obedience to Him.
Then the Lord told them: “If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray”. The Israelites allowed the idolatry of other nations to invade their hearts, their practices. God wanted them out.
We may not have religious idols in front of us. But we may have idols in our hearts – both physical and spiritual – that we need to get rid of. An idol is an object of worship, something we bow down to, something that influences us the most. Is there anyone, or anything, that is getting in the way of the intimacy that we should be having with God and God alone? It may be an “answered prayer” – like an object, gadget, or even a person, that you prayed for and God granted…but is taking His place in your heart. God asks us to get rid of them.
This may not necessarily mean literally getting rid of them (although sometimes that may be what we need to do!), but at the least, in our hearts, we are to make sure that God stays in His rightful place. Allow the light of the Lord to reveal to our hearts the idols that have taken His place.
Lastly the Lord said: and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives… God was asking them to bring back to their hearts the reality of who He was. It was easy for Israelites to include in their daily talk, or vows, the phrase “as surely as the Lord lives”. Did they really believe that the Lord was alive? Why were they not trusting in Him?
Has God been reduced to theological and philosophical beliefs and views in our mind? Do we just know that our God is alive and well in our minds, but not in our hearts? We, too, need to pray that God shows Himself alive and well in our hearts, and in our everyday lives. What a blessed revival experience it is to see the Lord in every circumstance, every situation, every trial or blessing! Do we truly trust Him, depend on Him, and acknowledge Him in everything in our lives?
It’s easy for us to say “praise the Lord”, or “God is faithful”. It’s easy for us to sing songs of praise and worship, and even to talk about God. But has the freshness and reality of God stayed real to us? Call it “dryness”, or a lukewarm state – whatever it is, if God has remained “lifeless” – just a belief, a theology, a thought, we need to ask God to graciously reveal Himself to us alive and real, in our hearts and in our life!
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