Monday, January 16: Jeremiah 17- Personal Responsibility.

A few verses gave me pause to ponder. There was verse 4:

Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."

And verse 9:

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Another was verse 10:

"I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve."

I could only write on one, since the words that jarred me most are the opening words of verse 4: Through your own fault you will lose…. The idea of personal responsibility is not a given these days. It seems everyone is attempting to find someone else to blame for almost everything. In traffic accidents it always seems to be “the other guy’s fault.” Doctors pay thousands and thousands for malpractice insurance. One miss-diagnosis and patients seek huge settlements. In my town, people were sledding down a town owned hill into a park. They had done it for years. That is until one dad with his son ran into the baseball field backstop, which had always been there at the bottom of the hill! He sued the town and won a 6 or 7 figure settlement for a broken leg and lost wages. I think he might have been a doctor. I guess he is not responsible for steering properly or maybe he should have moved 50 feet to the right so the backstop wasn’t in his path?

I could go on…

What I hear in this verse is that there will be none of this with the Lord. We will have to take responsibility for our lives and what we do with them, with respect to our walk and relationship with the Lord. God will hold us personally accountable for our lives and faith…

Hmmm… something to think about…

Lord, help me…

 

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