Jeremias 15
Warren Wiersbe · Citado em PreceptAustin
Jeremias 15:16
Wiersbe - The prophet experienced the loneliness of leadership and the anguish of ministry, but God encouraged him as he fed on the Word. God may not take away the pain in your heart, but He can balance it with His joy (Ed: As found in His Word = Ps 19:8-note and energized by His Spirit - 1Th 1:6-note, Ro 15:13-note, Gal 5:22-note, Jn 6:63). (With The Word Commentary) J
Jeremias 15:16
Wiersbe - How well I remember the day my doctor looked at me and said, "Reverend, you will not eat any more sweets." I've learned to do without desserts, but there's one sweet I cannot do without--God's Word: "How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" (Psalm 119:103). Is the Word of God like honey or medicine to you? The way some people treat it, you'd think it is castor oil. True, there are times when we need the healing medicine of the Scripture. But the Bible is much more than medicine. It also is honey. Having an appetite for God's Word is one sign that a person is truly born again, for the Bible is food for the soul. Job said, "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12). Jeremiah said, "Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart" (Jer. 15:16). Jesus said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" (Matt. 4:4). And Peter urges us to "desire the pure milk of the word" (1 Pet. 2:2). When people are sick, their appetites change--in fact, they often lose their appetites completely. Likewise, sin in our lives robs our spiritual appetite, and we lose our desire for the Word. May we always have an appetite for the sweetness of the Word of God, even when we have to read things that convict us. That first bite of Scripture may taste sour sometimes, but it will turn sweet. It's important to feed your soul a proper diet. Do you feed and nourish on God's Word? The Bible is sweet to those who love it. Learn it and live it. (Prayer, Praises and Promises) A W Pink on eating the Word - Meditation stands to reading—as digestion does to eating. It is as God's Word is pondered by the mind, turned over and over in the thoughts, and mixed with faith—that we assimilate it. That which most occupies the mind and most constantly engages our thoughts—is what we most "delight" in. (The Counsel of the Wicked) Warren Wiersbe - Meditation. Meditation is to the inner person what digestion is to the outer person: it makes the truth a part of our very being. We must welcome the Scriptures joyfully as a gift from God and not treat the Bible like any other book (1Th. 2:13). Other books can instruct the mind, but the Bible also nurtures and strengthens the heart (Matt. 4:4; Jer. 15:16). To meditate means to think over the passage, to relate it to other passages, and to apply it to our own lives. I enjoy tracing the cross-references and seeing how Scripture explains Scripture. Since the Word of the Lord is our spiritual food, we must have a balanced diet and not linger only in the books and passages we love the most. Adoration. When we are blessed by the Scriptures, we must lift our hearts and worship the Lord. “I will praise You with uprightness of heart, when I learn Your righteous judgments” (Ps. 119:7). The Bible and worship go together (Col. 3:16–17), and as we are filled with the Word of God, we grow in our worship of God. We don’t worship the Bible; we worship the God who gave us the Bible. Application. “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). The only Scripture that really goes to work in our lives and helps us grow is that which we obey. We can sit at the dinner table and admire the various foods, but if we don’t eat what is set before us, we will never benefit from the meal. It isn’t enough to read the recipe. We must chew, swallow, and digest the food, which means reading the Scriptures, meditating on them, and obeying what God tells us to do. (OT Words for Today) Beth Moore - Try Jeremiah’s approach while you’re at it. Don’t just read God’s Words. Receive them like a famished man at a feast. Whether we imagine inhaling it or devouring it, “let the word of Christ dwell in [us] richly” (Col. 3:16). Ask God to cause it to abide in you and bring its properties of effervescent life, power, and effectiveness with it. How about something moving into your life with some positive baggage for a change? Believe God to accomplish and achieve something eternal and intentional through your Scripture meditation every single day. Grow in confidence that every word abiding in you is having powerful effects. The primary reason God’s Word can have such an effect on a believer’s daily life is its vital association with the Holy Spirit. When we receive Christ as our Savior, the actual Spirit of Christ or the One we call the Holy Spirit takes up residency in us. In the same way that sin quenches the Holy Spirit within us, Scripture quickens the Holy Spirit within us. In fact, when we are filled with the Holy Spirit by yielding to His lordship and we read and receive God’s Word, something virtually supernatural takes place. You might think of it as internal combustion. Let me explain: In Jeremiah 23:29, God said, “Is not my word like fire… ?” As we draw from this parallel, relating something we can’t quite understand to something we can, picture the Holy Spirit like a flammable substance within us. Because oil was often associated with anointing in the Word, many scholars believe oil symbolized the Holy Spirit. For the sake of our analogy, let’s imagine the Holy Spirit as flammable oil within us. Now, imagine this oil flooding us completely as we seek and receive by faith the filling of God’s Holy Spirit. Next, imagine taking the torch of God’s Word and combining it with the oil of the Holy Spirit. What is the result? The consuming fire of our God blazes within us, bringing supernatural energy, glorious activity, and pure, unadulterated power. If you like formulas, this is one I believe you can count on: The Spirit of truth + the Word of truth = internal combustion . Sometimes I actually feel the Holy Spirit within me quickening to the Word of God as I study it, mix it with faith, and pray to absorb it. Even when I don’t feel a thing, I count on super-natural fireworks within. God says His Word is alive and powerful, and I believe Him. He also says His Word is alive and powerful when it’s in me. Me: a bundle of faults, fears, and insecurities. Just think! My weakness is not strong enough to wound God’s Word. Neither is yours. God does His job. He speaks to accomplish. We don’t have to make Him. We just need to let Him. (Believing God) Ivan Steeds - Jeremiah speaks to God about the sustenance he finds in His word, 15:16. God’s words—the plural form suggests the value of the smallest detail—are his source of edification (for he ate them), his enjoyment, and his encouragement, confirming the deep assurance that he belonged to Jehovah. When the ministry to which God calls us seems painful and apparently fruitless, let us turn to Him and find succour in His unfailing words of truth. As the word calls us to prayer, so prayer will drive us back to the word. (Day by Day in Prayer) Stewart Custer - EAT - “Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16). Eating and digesting God’s Word are one of the believer’s great joys. Concerning physical food the Lord Jesus said, “Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat?” (Matt. 6:31). “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matt. 6:33). But He also said, “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:15). He also said to the church of Ephesus, “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God” (Rev. 2:7). (Wonderful Words) Cyril Hocking - In spite of the prophet’s sorrow and sadness, his appreciation of God’s Word became a source of strength, Jer 15:16. We can link Jeremiah’s joy in the Word of the Lord with the experience of the blessed man of Psalm 1:1–2. In God’s Word the prophet found an oasis of delight in a desert of despair. Notice his sense of acquisition: “Thy words were found”. Jeremiah was a seeker—he sought for appropriate consolation in his sadness. By seeking, he found. It is noticeable that the Word of God furnished, not only the burden of judgment, but the basis of joy. He assimilated that which he found; the Word became his food and sustenance, sweet to his soul. His appreciation developed, and he was satisfied deeply in his heart. Spiritual growth and prosperity are always the outcome of the appropriation of the Word of God to our own circumstances. (Day by Day Through the OT) J C Philpot - October 16 - Jeremiah 15:16 - There is a sweetness in the promises which captivates the heart; a beauty in Christ which wins the soul; a saving unction and power in the word of God, when applied, which draws forth toward it every secret and sacred affection. Can you not sometimes look up and say, "Blessed Jesus, I do love you?" And when the word of God is opened up, applied, and made sweet and precious, have you not felt sometimes as if you could kiss the sacred page, as conveying such sweetness into your soul? This is embracing a promise in love--throwing our arms round it, drawing it near to our breast, kissing it again and again with kisses of love and affection, and taking that sweet delight in it with which the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, as now all his own--at times almost lost, but now wooed and won, no more to be parted. This is rejoicing in the word of God, delighting in a blessed Jesus and in the promises which testify of, and center in him. Have you not felt these sweet embracements in your soul of the truth as it is in Jesus as so precious, so suitable, so encouraging, and so adapted to every need and woe? Then you are a believer; then you are a child of God; then there is a work of grace upon your heart; then you know the truth for yourself by divine teaching and divine testimony. You may still not have had that full deliverance, that blessed revelation, that overpowering manifestation whereby all your doubts and fears have been swept away, and your soul settled in a firm enjoyment of the liberty of the gospel. You may have had it or may have had it not. But if you have this character stamped upon you that you have seen the promises afar off and been persuaded of them, and embraced them in faith, hope, and love, you have a mark of being a partaker of the faith of God's elect. (October 1) C H