Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
May 31, 2022, 7:29 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 41-44
Meditation Verses: 44:17-18
Thought
They remember it wrong or analyze it incorrectly because they don't understand the compassion of the Lord. While they sinned against Him, they enjoyed His mercy while He sent prophets to rebuke them and turn them from their sinful ways. When they refused to repent, God brought suffering into their lives, and if they did leave off their sinful ways, it was not in truth and only until God brought relief, as when they proclaimed freedom for their Hebrew slaves, then when Babylon withdrew, they claimed them all back as slaves again.
May 30, 2022, 7:31 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 37-40
Meditation Verses: 39:16-18
Thought
In the midst of great disaster, God is able to promise to a foreign slave in the king's house that he will not die, but be given his life as a ransom because of his faith in the Lord. It seems impossible that the Lord could deliver him out of the wrath and confusion of the overthrow of Jerusalem, but the Lord still makes this promise to him. Jeremiah was known even to the king of Babylon, who gave instructions concerning him by name.
May 29, 2022, 7:32 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 33-36
Meditation Verse: 33:3
Thought
This is a well known promise, God's invitation to come and ask Him to reveal great and mighty things, mysteries and future events. But in its immediate context, it begins with bad news, that the Lord will destroy Jerusalem for its sin. However, it ends with a promise to again restore Jerusalem and make her the praise of the whole earth. God wants to do good to His people, but they must acknowledge their sin and repent of it.
May 28, 2022, 7:33 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 29-32
Meditation Verse: 32:33
Thought
Lord, You said You would make a new covenant with Your people, a covenant to write Your Law on their hearts and on their inward parts. Why then does it seem that "believers" today still seem so clueless about You? Why do they commit this same sin, turning their back to You and not their face, not listening to receive instruction even though You teach them daily by Your Spirit and by Your servants? Who really wants to know You and walk in Your ways?
May 27, 2022, 7:34 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 25-28
Meditation Verse: 25:29
Thought
Judgment begins with the people of God, and if God finds fault with His own people, what will He do to those who do not follow Him at all? Of course He will find even greater fault! At least those who were called by His name had some faith in Him, they did speak of Him and had some recollection of His ways. But those who reject Him have nothing but contempt for Him and His ways! For whom will it go better?
May 26, 2022, 7:36 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 21-24
Meditation Verses: 23:21-22
Thought
A good prophet is one who stands in the Lord's counsel, listens to His voice and tells the people what he hears. They don't need a special message, just the Words that have already been written! All anyone needs to do is read His Word to the people, and they will turn from their evil ways.
May 25, 2022, 7:38 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 17-20
Meditation Verses: 19:14-15
Thought
Except in a few cases, prophets spoke to groups of people, not to individuals. The next chapter starts with a prophecy directed at the priest who imprisoned Jeremiah, an exception, but most of Jeremiah's messages are spoken to the people, to crowds or groups of people. The prophet was sent to reach as many as possible, that enough people might repent so that the Lord could relent of the disaster He planned.
May 24, 2022, 7:39 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 13-16
Meditation Verse: 15:10
Thought
It is hard to be a prophet. When God sends a prophet, it is usually to a people He cares for but who have turned from His ways. They need correction because they have turned away from following the Lord, but the more hostile to God they are, the more rebuke they need and the less they welcome it. The prophet is almost always caught between a rock and a hard place, sent to a people who need him but don't want him.
May 23, 2022, 7:38 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 9-12
Meditation Verses: 12:14-17
Thought
The Lord will cast out His people from their land because they did not obey Him. But afterwards, He promises to have pity on them and bring them back to their land, to restore their inheritance to them. If they then do not learn to walk in His ways after being so disciplined, then He will again tear them out of the land and destroy them as a nation. The point of discipline is to bring about change and obedience. God sent them into exile in Babylon, then brought them back.
May 22, 2022, 7:41 AM
Passage Read: Jeremiah 5-8
Meditation Verses: 7:2-4
Thought
This warning is for people coming to worship the Lord. They think that because the Temple is there, because they worship the Lord in His Temple, they think everything will be all right. They don't understand what it means to worship the Lord: They think it means praying in His Temple, maybe giving some money, offering a sacrifice, listening to or singing songs. The Lord didn't require any of that; He required obedience to His Law.