Daily Devotional

A Ministry of the Kerwin Baptist Church

October 27, 2018

by Pastor Hawtree

I AM PERSUADED THAT HE IS ABLE:

TO GET OUR ATTENTION

Jeremiah 22:21 I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.

Those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ are now the Children of God. God is now our Father. We belong to Him. Having children of my own, there is nothing that I love more than doing something special for my boys. I do not enjoy disciplining them. I do not enjoy dealing negatively with my sons. I want them to be happy, and I want them to know that I love them. However, if they will not listen to me when I am giving and generous to them, then I will have to resort to other means to get their attention.

God says here that He has tried to speak to the people of Juday by bringing them prosperity, but they just would not listen. In fact, according to the verse, they went as far as to tell God that they were not listening. God said something interesting here. God says that this has been “thy manner from thy youth”. God was saying that He might expect something like this from an immature, young baby, but He would expect more from them by now. Here are people that never really grew up spiritually.

A lot of people are like that. You can understand a little more not listening to God before a person knows better, but why would you continue to not listen when you do know better. God is saying you didn’t listen to me before, and you’re not listening to me now. God is saying that He had tried to be good to them, and tried to be generous, but they won’t listen. So now God is going to have to go a different route. Now God is going to have to try a different approach.

You and I have a tendency to listen to God when things are not going well, but as soon as we become prosperous and things start to run smoothly, we fail to hear what God has to say to us. It is as if we think we don’t need Him now. We only listen to God when we think He has something to say that we need to hear. Dear friend, we need to hear everything God has to say to us. We need to hear it all. If God has been generous to you, then show appreciation by listening intently to what He has to say. Let’s not make God to go to other lengths to get our attention.