This Sunday’s Bible lessons teach us that we can be honest with God and tell Him we are unhappy. God is our Heavenly Father and He wants us to tell Him everything including the things that make us sad or cry. These readings also show that we still can thank God and praise Him even during these times.
Old Testament
Jeremiah is known as the “weeping” prophet. Weeping is another word for crying. God gave Jeremiah the hard job of telling the Israelites that they were doing things that God did not want them to do and there would be consequences if the Israelites did not stop.
Jeremiah lived during a time when his country, Israel, was faced with many large problems. The countries around them wanted to destroy Israel and the Israelites were arguing with each other. God wanted the Israelites to listen to Him and obey Him even though they faced tough times. The Israelites didn’t want to hear Jeremiah’s words and often made fun of him. This made Jeremiah very sad. Our reading from Jeremiah shows how sad this made him. But, Jeremiah still praised God and thanked Him.
This is an important lesson for us. We thank God when we are happy. But, many times we don’t thank God when things are hard for us. This week give thanks to God for everything including the times when your day was not the best.
Psalm 69
In this Psalm King David is very unhappy and is begging God to save King David from his enemies who were trying to kill him and destroy the Israelites. Here again we see that we can be totally honest with God. We can bring our biggest problems and unhappiest times to God and He will always protect and guide us.
King David and the Israelites spoke Hebrew. Hebrew is the original language of the Bible. Read Psalm 69 together with your parents and then listen to Psalm 69 spoken in Hebrew. Click on the link to hear Psalm 69 the way that King David would have said it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aULVmlLIaSs
New Testament
Here Jesus tells his disciples and us that we need to “take up our crosses and follow him.” What does this mean? Jesus is telling us when we believe in Him we need to live in a new and changed way. This includes being unselfish, honest and loving even when is very hard to do so.
Jesus tells us that people will not always like us for doing the right things and to obey Him. He tells us we may even lose friendships as a result. But, He reminds us that we will always be His friends. One day Jesus will tell God and the angels we are His friends. Wow! How wonderful is this!
Below is the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing “Take up your cross and Follow Jesus.” Listen to it and sing along.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkJRrhZyR3I
Encourage us, Jesus, to take up your cross and seek life with you.
Amen.