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Discipleship Focus: Appetite
- Appetite: We all have needs that need to be filled. When we allow ourselves to be filled with the people and things that God brings into our life, we will be satisfied because our In will be in proper focus. But when we try to fill ourselves with our own desires we end up frustrated by an insatiable hunger.
God and
Jeremiah have a very interesting conversation in this chapter. God asks Jeremiah to go through all of
Jerusalem and try and find a single righteous person. In fact, God even seems to make a wager that
if Jeremiah can find one then He will relent from the judgment that God has
planned. And before you guess, I want
you to know that I don’t find this passage because of the massive number of
people who aren’t righteous. I’m not
surprised by that. I live in the
world. I know just how many human beings
are not righteous in God’s eyes. I know
how many human beings live with themselves as the center of their life as they “look
out for number one.”
What I’m
surprised by is Jeremiah’s lack of response.
I honestly believe that Jeremiah understands how much righteousness is
not present. But look at what Jeremiah
never says. He never says, “Hey, God, I’m
righteous!” He never says, “What about
my disciples, God?” Jeremiah knows
better. There are no righteous
people. There are no people who seek God’s
will on their own without the help of God.
Jeremiah knows the appetite that lives within His heart.
I think
that this is one of the qualities that I respect about the prophets. In truth, I think this is one of the
qualities that I respect in anyone. I
respect people who have an honest evaluation about themselves. I respect people who are not afraid to look
in the mirror and see just how sinful they really are. I do think that it is when we can see the
sinful appetite within that we are then able best to rely fully upon the grace
of God the best. After all, only when I
can accept that even I am not righteous on my own can I truly cling to the
righteousness that God offers me for free.
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