Jeremiah 43-44

Daily Devotional from Jeremiah 44--

Verse 18

But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.

Apparently, some Judean exiles in Egypt  half-heartedly listened to Jeremiah’s warnings and temporarily gave up worshiping false idols. They expected life to improve immediately, but just the opposite happened. So they gave up and went back to their old ways.

We might think that after we leave the “old life“ behind and become a “new creation” in the Lord, that life will immediately become easier. Our bad habits will fall away. Our problems will disappear because we have God on our side.

But saying “yes” to God doesn’t mean that life will be easy. It wasn’t for Jesus and it won’t be for us (1 Peter 5:10). Trouble (suffering) is part of life.

Don’t give up when the going gets tough. God promises to stay beside us through it all, and work all things together for good for those who love Him (Deut. 31: 6-8; Rom. 8:28).

Rick Bolesta