Today's Scripture: Jeremiah 33:1-3
"Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known."
There are times when I can see the gears turning in my grandson's head as he tries to figure out how something works. He'll get still (which is unusual in itself since he's only two years old), and a look of concentration will settle on his face as he stares at whatever it is he's trying to figure out. Then, after a short time, he'll reach out and try something … push a button, or turn a lever for example. He's a lot like his father who, can pretty much take anything apart and put it back together again.
Sometimes it's pretty easy to know what someone is thinking about even though we may not know exactly what they might be thinking.
Wouldn't you like to know what God is thinking? In today's passage, Jeremiah points out that we can. Well, maybe not exactly what he's thinking, but we can gain insight into his ways, and we do that by talking with God.
When you spend time with someone, talking about all kinds of things, you get to know that person.
Consider two young people who meet, form an attraction, and then begin dating. It used to be that they would spend a lot of time on the phone talking with one another. Nowadays, it's probably done by text.
But as they spend time talking together, they get to know one another. They learn what each other likes or dislikes, what movies or books they like or dislike. All the little things that make us who we are comes out in conversation.
Jeremiah alludes to that same kind of getting-to-know-you with God. When we call upon God, he will answer and reveal "great and mighty things which you do not know."
I don't know about you, but I want some of that. I want to know the things of God. Big things, little things, things of all sizes, I want to know them from God.
The best way to know those things, to know God, is to talk with him in prayer. And, as a reminder, an important part of talking with God is pausing to listen to what he has to say. After all, we can't hear those things from God if we just keep talking over him and not listening to him.
If Jeremiah hadn't listened to God, he would have missed out on the Lord's message of hope and healing and restoration for his people that followed. Let's be like Jeremiah. Let's hear the things God would have us know.
Think about it …
- What "great and mighty" things would you like to know from God?
- What would you do with what God might reveal to you?
- Try something different. Set aside some prayer time to just listen to God. Open with a time of adoration and confession, and then just listen. Open your ear to him and what he might say to you.
