Day 2: The Healing Power of Receiving God's Thoughts
The Watchman’s Devotional: Encouragement and Guidance for Men of God from the Book of Jeremiah
To whom the word of the Lord came.
Jeremiah 1:2a
I remember when ministry made me happy.
I remember when it energized me, compelled me, satisfied me.
But that seems so long ago.
Is this how you feel?
Have the years of ministry burdens drained the life you once found in your calling?
Has it devolved into a job, a task, something you do because you have to, because people expect you to, because you have no other choice.
If this describes you, you’re not alone. Many faithful men have felt this way across the centuries, and many still do.
But it need not continue. There is a way to find that life again.
And it may begin with this simple phrase from Jeremiah 1:2: “To whom the word of the Lord came.”
Let me show you how.
The Honor of God’s Words
Have you ever thought about what it means when the Bible says “the word of the Lord came” to so-and-so?
Is it only referring to the message itself, like getting a text or email from someone? You see it, acknowledge it, and then repeat it.
Message received. Job done.
While it certainly indicates a message has been communicated, the nature of God’s relationship with his prophets implies something much more profound.
When the Bible says, “The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,” it means his mind had received the eternal thoughts of his Creator.
Jeremiah, a creature limited in time and space, full of sin and immorality, was given, in his innermost self, the perfect and pure contemplations of the Divine Being.
Consider that carefully. Eternal instructions, feelings, and convictions shared with a man formed of dust.
An honor beyond measure, to be sure.
And yet this honor is not his alone. Every believer receives it when God opens his eyes to the truthfulness of what has been said in the Bible.
Like the prophets of old, the Spirit, through the Word, makes God’s thoughts come alive inside of us.
The high honor of God’s contemplations is available to us all.
The Weight Honor Brings
But this honor comes with a burden, a responsibility to meditate on those thoughts, internalize them, obey them.
We should never encounter God’s truth and walk away as if nothing had happened.
To do so is an affront to all that is holy and all that is sacred.
The honor of receiving God’s words is one thing, but the honor of preaching them is quite another.
To declare his thoughts openly, before men, angels, and demons, is an honor of even greater magnitude and one that brings an even greater obligation.
Men called to preach must take their interactions with God’s truth to the highest level possible.
Their meditations must be more intense, their understandings more profound, their faith more steadfast, their obedience more complete.
Why? Because they have passed from learners to teachers, from followers to examples, and their ministries will affect the glory of God and the eternal futures of men.
With this in mind, let me speak to those called to preach.
To Those Called to Preach
My brothers, is it possible that your diminished drive for ministry comes from a diminished view of the honor you have received?
The awe you once felt at receiving God’s words and being called into his service has slowly faded.
Now the work feels ordinary. The privilege, routine.
If this describes you, let me offer a possible solution.
Take the words spoken of Jeremiah, replace his name with yours, and repeat it to yourself over and over.
“The words of [your name], to whom the word of the Lord came.”
And as those words echo through your mind, let them remind you that you have received the eternal thoughts of your Creator, and that you have been granted the highest honor imaginable—the call to declare his thoughts before the world.
No matter how it may seem, there is nothing ordinary or routine about what you do.
It is the most meaningful, challenging, and exciting thing a man could ever attempt.
Let this profound truth breathe life into your disenchanted heart, energize you for the work you have left, and reinvigorate every aspect of your ministry.