Daily Devotion – February 9, 2022 – Dr. Pat Taylor Ellison

Jeremiah 17:5-10
17:5 Thus says the LORD: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the LORD.
17:6 They shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
17:7 Blessed are those who trust in the LORD, whose trust is the LORD.
17:8 They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
17:9 The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse– who can understand it?
17:10 I the LORD test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.

Jeremiah is urging his hearers to trust in the God they know rather than people who sometimes get it wrong. He points at those who follow people who give them bad advice and says, “Look, you could end up withering in the desert; you could end up blind to the relief that God might be sending to you.”

I think of some folks in my own family who have followed people who teach behavior that is anti-social, who ended up isolating themselves in a cult, in one case, or in a community practicing alternative methods of health care that left them open to illness and other harms.  Jeremiah knows that sometimes the human heart wants to believe in someone charismatic who promises you a better life. He says, “The heart is devious and perverse – who can understand it?”

So Jeremiah says to stick to the community of faith that trusts in the Lord and in the Law of the Lord.

It can be hard to know who to trust. And we don’t always make the right call. And we can be fooled, Jeremiah warns.  We are only human. We must ask God to help us. Breathe, pause, and have the confidence that the Lord will lead us rightly.

Gracious God, Thank you for loving us. Thank you for giving us confidence that you will always lead us. Thank you for Jeremiah’s reminder that we won’t always get it right. Help us to learn from the wrong turns we take, and to follow you more truly so that you can use us in your work.  Amen.