What makes you successful?

Every day we're reading or listening to part of the Bible together and sharing thoughts with you. Today it’s Bern Leckie:

What did I like about today’s passage?

Jeremiah was, by almost any standard, a failure. This lengthy account of his life’s ministry is hard to take in – it’s emotionally swampy, relentlessly down, salt tears dripping into wounds caused by people’s rebellion against God. It went down as well as you might expect.

Jeremiah was not the only prophet in the land, but he was the one no-one wanted to listen to. People didn’t respond to his criticisms, warnings, pictures or pleas with acceptance of their need to change. Would you book him for your conference? Not if you wanted people to come. What’s the point of having a speaker no-one will like, accept or listen to?

The incredible thing is that Jeremiah lived this unpopular life in faithfulness to God who called him. Over Jeremiah’s objections, I love that God filled him with the assurance that he was special, called, known from before birth, set apart and destined for a life God would equip him for. I love that Jeremiah really could see and hear God at work in a difficult time and cope, not just with people’s opposition but with the ferocity of God’s stormy passion.

We’ll see over time that God had many reasons to feel strongly about the state of his people. While it might sometimes look like a moan about religious stuff, I love that it’s much more an expression of pain about relationships. God’s people had become unfaithful and this would cause far worse problems than patchy attendance at the temple.

While Jeremiah’s failure to turn this around was lamentable, his one success was the only thing which mattered – he was faithful to God while others were not. This meant that God could be known, even though people did not want to know at the time.

What did it show me about Father God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God is passionate about people and the quality of relationship they have with him. While we have been looking at God’s dealings with rulers recently, it’s clear from this that God does not just look at what leaders are doing, but is concerned for everyone, including people who have stopped looking for him. To reach those people, God can empower those who trust him to speak and reach out in his name. His measure of success is faithfulness.

What am I going to do differently as a result?

This challenges my ideas of how I know things are going well. I find it easy to judge life in terms of good feelings, comfort and popular success. I must remember that faithfulness to God matters more than any of that. So, I need to spend more time listening to God, not just asking him to bless my plans, and when he calls or corrects me, I need to respond.

Who am I going to share this with?

People I pray and seek God with, including our online small group.