Dear Fellow-Alumni,
Greetings in Christ name!
In my recent devotion on Jeremiah 32:17, I was greatly encouraged by God’s precious reminder that he alone is sovereign and almighty! Even if the challenges are great, and, at that time I was going through some challenges, the Lord used these words to focus on him, and not on the problems. He assured me that despite the challenges, he is almighty and there is nothing too difficult for him!
Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who has made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
The amazing thing was that the context of this verse is right in the midst of advancing enemies coming into Judah to besiege the Israelites. The Babylonian army had already surrounded Judah, and Jeremiah was in chains. Yet God would ask him to do the most ridiculous thing – to go to his hometown, Anathoth, and buy a land!
The response that Jeremiah gives to God’s request is the above verse! He recognized that God is the Creator of the universe and that there is nothing God cannot do! He is aware of this fact. But to buy land when their country is under siege and taken over by enemies? Despite this tragedy, God’s promise to his people, taken into captivity, is that one day, they will return! The buying of the land was a sure promise that the children of Judah would return to their country one day!
The lesson for me in my current situation is that this same God who made the heavens and the earth, this God is with me. Besides, this God is all-powerful, and nothing is too difficult for him! What an amazing promise! What great comfort to our hearts to know this truth!?
Jeremiah went on to say:?
You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and might God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. (Jeremiah 32:18-19)
The God of the Bible is perfect in all his ways. He is not only omnipotent but also omnipresent and omniscient. In other words, he is not only all-powerful, but he is present everywhere and knows all things! He is righteous, holy and just. He is both Transcendent (separate from his creation) and yet Immanent (close at hand to his creation and involved in their affairs). He is truly our All-Sufficient God!
Because he is all-sufficient, I will lack no good thing! He will be with me in the midst of trouble. He will either rescue me or walk with me, as “I walk through the valley”! (Psalm 23)
Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, saw the devastation in his land, saw his people dragged to Babylon, but Jeremiah held on to the promises of God. He believed that one day his people would return to their promised home!
Let us take comfort in our awesome and all-powerful God and all his promises in his living Word! Let us hold fast to our God through Jesus Christ, the eternal Word, who became flesh and tabernacled in our midst! He walks with us. He is with us. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will deliver us, and He will walk beside us! Hallelujah!
Let us go forth this day and the days ahead, with confidence in our All-Sufficient God, who reigns victorious!
Your fellow pilgrim,