Year 6, Day 57: Jeremiah 4

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Discipleship Focus: Challenge

• Challenge: God does not merely wish us to be in relationship with Him as we are.  He challenges us to grow, stretch, and transform as we take on the mantle of being His representatives to this world.

I find myself somewhat uncomfortable when reading through judgment chapters.  Of course, judgment is by its very nature uncomfortable.  Nobody likes to read verses talking about how unhappy God is at any particular moment.  But there is also a certain amount of familiarity with the condemnation.  I know I am not innocent of my own sin.  Often, I find that my own sin isn’t really all that different than the sin of the people being condemned.  When we read judgment chapters, the message typically hits home very much.

Therefore, I was struck today by the early thoughts of this chapter – especially the thoughts regarding “breaking up your fallow ground.”  Anyone who knows about an agrarian lifestyle knows that it is important to break up the fallow ground.  Sure, seeds that fall on the ground and lay there can sprout.  Trees do this kind of thing as they litter the ground with thousands – if not millions – of seeds every year and a few grow.  But if we break up the ground and plant a seed within the earth, the plant is far more likely to grow and thrive.

So where is the challenge?  The challenge is in how excited I get when I think about myself being fallow ground.  The challenge comes when I think about what it means for God to break open my fallow nature.  Do I want my nice, comfortable, and reliable life broken open?  Of course I do, but it is certainly a challenge to think about what God might do if I let Him.  The challenge is realizing that if I really do want to grow in m closeness with the Lord, I need to accept the challenge of having my fallow life broken open so God can find fertile ground to grow.

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