EXPAND TO READ: JEREMIAH 49 (HCSB)
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
SIN (verse 4): Father, I do struggle with boasting and bragging quite often in this life. Please forgive me for this. Forgive me for often living in self-righteousness, often bragging about my achievements at times instead of taking the humble route and/or giving credit to You for my achievements. Although this isn’t a huge issue of mine, it is still a struggle at times for me as I do feel at times the “need” to brag about some of my achievements to get the praise of others when I really should be focusing on praising and glorifying You through all that I am able to achieve and attain in this life. Forgive me for being so self-focused at times, Father.
PROMISE (verse 12): The promise You make to us in this verse is quite simply that all actions against Your will for us will have repercussions. You promise us that even though our transgressions are forgiven for entrance into Heaven, it does not mean that we will go unpunished for the things we have done against Your will in this life. Thank You for Your just discipline, Father. Thank You for caring enough about us and loving us enough to want to correct us, when necessary, in hopes that we will accept that discipline and correct our ways in this life.
ATTITUDE (verse 4): As I confessed in my sin portion of this journal, I do often struggle with the attitude of boastfulness. Please help me to correct this, Father. Help me to live in an attitude of humbleness. Help me to embrace an attitude of praise towards You for all things that I will attain and achieve in this life, Father. Help my spirit be aligned more with Yours in those moments, so I know that the things I am about to say or do are in a selfish, boastful manner so that I can correct it quickly.
COMMAND (verse 16): In this verse, You tell us that our presumptuous heart has deceived us. Oftentimes, I tend to overstep Your will for my life, thinking that I am doing what’s best for me. I go past the limits that You have placed on my life, while trying to do things on my own and in either my own way or the world’s way. You tell us that a presumptuous heart has deceived us and I have been witness to this many times throughout my life. Please help me to no longer live in a presumptuous way, Father. Help me to be better at living this life in a way that is permissible and pleasing to You, Father, so that I am no longer living in deception.
EXAMPLE (verses 6, 39): In these two verses, You give us such an amazing example of Your grace and love for Your people, Father. Although You have brought great punishment and discipline onto the Ammonites and Elam, at the end of the Scripture pertaining to them specifically You stated that You will restore their fortunes. This is an amazing example of our perfect Father in Heaven. Not only do You invoke discipline on us in a just way, but You also show us that You truly do care for our well-being through the restoration that discipline can provide. Thank You for this amazing example of Your Fatherhood.
*DAILY NOTE: I’m not going to lie, I did struggle a bit with journaling my quiet time today, Father. This particular Scripture didn’t seem to speak as loudly to me at first as most of Jeremiah has due to a lot of it just being details of the punishment and discipline You were bringing onto certain lands. Once I hunkered down and removed the distractions of my mind, however, I was able to dig in a little more and slowly but surely some verses began to pop out to me as important for my journaling. Thank You for speaking to me, Father. Thank You for this amazing relationship You are growing with me now that I am finally allowing it to happen. I know You’ve always been there for me, waiting for me to open up. I know it was me that was limiting the power of this relationship and I am sorry for that. I will be better and I pray that this relationship with You continues to flourish in ways I cannot even fathom. Thank you, Father!
EXPAND TO READ: GENERAL NOTE FOR MY QUIET TIMES
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