Lean on, trust in, and be confident in the Lord with all your heart and mind and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. Proverbs 3:5 AMP.

Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 2 Corinthians 4:17.

He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25 NASB.

It was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Hebrews 2:10 NKJV.

What kind of life are we living and what kind of life do we want to live? In our chapter, Jeremiah 3, Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, asks questions that seem so obvious except when we are determined to go our own way to our hurt. “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers – would you now return to Me?” declares the Lord. v. 1. Remember for God, idolatry – serving anything other than God, is prostitution. “You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness…Have you not just called to Me: ‘My Father, my friend from my youth, will You always be angry? Will Your wrath continue forever?’ This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can.” v. 2-5. God promised to be faithful to the children of Israel and yet Israel and Judah were unfaithful to God, doing all the evil they could. Israel is already in captivity at this point. Couldn’t Judah see? “I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the Lord. v. 8-10. What about us? The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah. Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the Lord, ‘I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt – you have rebelled against the Lord your God, you have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every spreading tree, and have not obeyed Me,’” declares the Lord. v. 11-13. What life do we want? What life does God want for us? “Return, faithless people,” declares the Lord, “for I am your husband. I will choose you – one from a town and two from a clan – and bring you to Zion. Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and understanding. In those days, when your numbers have increased greatly in the land,” declares the Lord, ‘It will never enter their minds or be remembered; it will not be missed, nor will another one be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. No longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the people of Judah will join the people of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. “I myself said, ‘”How gladly would I treat you like My children and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following Me.” v. 14-19. The sins of this world are a deception, and when will we see that? Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. v. 23. And remember, Israel was to be a light for the other nations so they would know God and turn away from their worthless idols to the true God who loves them. So that, all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. What deceptions to we believe in? They pull us further away from our love for God. God allows us to choose those deceptions and there it is cold and empty…barren. When will we see? And the cry of God’s heart? I thought you would call Me “Father” and not turn away from following Me. Remember the parable of the prodigal son? The younger son who left the father to squander everything in wild living/the older son angry and judgmental? And the father? But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him./”My son,” the father said, “You are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” Luke 15:20, 31-32. Welcoming home the younger son meant the father had to also counsel the older son in what his love truly meant for both of them. And that’s okay because all of it is needed. God’s Love is our Home.