Focal Passage:
“O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily;
Everyone mocks me.
For when I spoke, I cried out;
I shouted, “Violence and plunder!”
Because the word of the Lord was made to me
A reproach and a derision daily.
Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.
For I heard many mocking:
“Fear on every side!”
“Report,” they say, “and we will report it!”
All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
“Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him,
And we will take our revenge on him.”
But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome One.
Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail.
They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper.
Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
But, O Lord of hosts,
You who test the righteous,
And see the mind and heart,
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For I have pleaded my cause before You.
Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!
For He has delivered the life of the poor
From the hand of evildoers.“
Jer. 20:7-12
There is an anchor in truth that you must tie your life to, a standard by which one should live, and that Truth is the Rock upon which we, the Church, stand and build our lives. The world today has denied that there is any standard of truth or morality. They have no rock upon which to stand or to build their lives. For them, all the world is shifting sands as in the Desert of Sin. How difficult it must be to be a prophet of God in such times. How difficult to hold to a standard when all the world around you is swirling in a maelstrom of confusion and depravity. The madder the world becomes, the more you stand out as something odd and irritating. Such times are the result of people turning away from God to seek their own pleasure, to worship at the altars of lesser gods.
Long-suffering as He is, His wrath is like a burning fire in the heart of God and therefore in the hearts of His prophets. In the prayer above, Jeremiah tries to keep from speaking the truth because it only makes him more of a thorn in the side of a society that has rejected God and His Ways. But he apologizes for doing so and the fire in his heart will not be quenched. The people, the lost people must know the Truth and so, like Jeremiah, we must take a stand in the midst of tumult. Johnathan Cahn calls for an anchor.
Castaways Point 