OUR LORD'S PLACE OF REST

Jeremiah chapter 9 verses 2 - 3 are the words of the Lord and they read this way;

Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

“They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares the Lord.

This passage gives a window into the frustration that the Lord our God had with His people the children of Israel. 

The Lord, though He dwelled in Israel, longed for a traveller's  resort in the desert where he could get away from his people because they were adulterous people and malicious liars who acted lawlessly and did not acknowledge their God.

This passage was referring to the children of Israel among whom the Lord God dwelled in His  Temple but this dynamic also includes us who believe in Jesus and are indwelt by the Holy Spirit.

As believers, we must consider if the Lord would rather to be somewhere else when He experiences the life we subject him to. 

Do our lives reflect His holiness and kindness and temperance and mercy and patience and chastity? 

When the Lord's own righteous nature is expressed in us, we ourselves become like an expensive and exclusive resort for Him to dwell in and find rest.

If, however, our lives are cluttered with anger, lies, indiscipline, malice, hatred, lust and selfishness, we are like a cheap motel in a seedy part of town with filthy rooms, discolored water from the taps, noisy drunken fights next door and background gunfire. In such a jarring place where situations careen from one calamity to the next all night long, rest is difficult to find.

Let us build ourselves up to be like a high-end resort where the Lord is served cheerfully and attentively. He finds everything He wants in order and ready for His purposes.

Amen.