Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8 NASB.

Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; and in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, until these calamities have passed by. Psalm 57:1 NKJV.

I loved these thoughts today from You Are The Beloved by Henri Nouwen: “We must learn to live each day, each hour, each minute as a new beginning, as a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each moment as a moment pregnant with new life. Imagine that we could live each day as a day full of promises. Imagine that we could walk through the new year always listening to the voice saying to us: “I have a gift for you and can’t wait for you to see it!” Imagine…We must open our minds and our hearts to the voice that resounds through the valleys and hills of our life saying, “Let Me show you where I live among My people. My name is ‘God-with-you.’ I will wipe all the tears from your eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness. The world of the past has gone.” (Revelation 21:2-5)”

The valleys in my life are what Nouwen called the “little foxes” nipping at us telling us nothing will change and all the past problems are too big to escape. And yet, when we choose to listen to Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, we begin to acknowledge who the real authority is and it isn’t us. I don’t know. I have believed so many things throughout my life that I am unsure of now. I’m ready to listen to God. And this journey of reading His word helps me realize I’m walking on ground others have walked; I can learn in this life with God helping me and then it all has meaning and nothing is wasted. And our chapter, Jeremiah 37, is difficult because the names are so foreign to us. But these events happened as surely as events happen today. For clarity, again to the notes below: “37:1ff King Jehoiakim died on the way to Babylon (2 Chronicles 36:6), and his son Jehoiachin was appointed king, but Jehoiachin was taken captive to Babylon three months later. Nebuchadnezzar then appointed Zedekiah as his vassal in Judah.” Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he reigned in place of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehukal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.” v. 1-3. Can you imagine what it’s like to be in Zedekiah’s position? Things are happening fast and they aren’t good. Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. Pharaoh’s army had marched out of Egypt, and when the Babylonians who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem. v. 4-5. Two armies turned toward each other. Jeremiah starts to leave Jerusalem to check on his land in the territory of Benjamin but is stopped and arrested by the captain of the guard who thinks Jeremiah is deserting to the Babylonians. He is thrown into a vaulted cell in a dungeon where he remained a long time, v. 11-16. And then, King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there any word from the Lord?” “Yes,” Jeremiah replied, “you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.” Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “What crime have I committed against you or your attendants or this people, that you have put me in prison? Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land’? But now, my lord the king, please listen. Let me bring my petition before you: Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, or I will die there.” King Zedekiah then gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread from the street of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard. v. 17-21. Until all the bread in the city was gone…things are too dire to ignore at this point. And God told Jeremiah what would happen…Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of Me, ‘Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down’…”Do not deceive yourselves thinking, ‘The Babylonians will surely leave us.’ They will not! Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.” v. 6-10.

We can spend our entire lives listening only to our own “voice of authority”. We can spend ourselves listening to others. But when you’re ready for the voice of One who knows, be ready to step out in faith.