Wisdom for Today: Daily Devotions for Enlightened Living

WEDNESDAY, 17 APRIL 2024

TEXT: Jeremiah 7:1-15

1: This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:

2: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: “‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord.

3: This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place.

4: Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”

5: If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly,

6: if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm,

7: then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever.

8: But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

9: “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known,

10: and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things?

11: Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! Declares the Lord.

12: “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.

13: While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer.

14: Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors.

15: I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.

(New International Version Holy Bible)

TOPIC: WORTHLESSNESS OF FALSE RELIGION

God's people were so engrossed in false religion that they thought they were worshiping the true God. The Lord directed His prophet to go and stand at the entrance of the Church and tell the people as they filed into worship about His thoughts concerning them (vs. 5-7).

Only true worshippers will get the blessings of the house of God. Unfortunately, many Christians trust in the false words of those prophecies that cannot proof but only mislead them.

Many love to hear preachers declaring, "I prophesy into your life" and "should I prophesy" as if they are taking permission from worshippers to speak for them and not from God. These are the types of false preachers most Christians prefer to follow these days.

QUESTION: What should be our desire each time we approach the house of God in worship?

PRAYER: Dear Lord, I pray that I may not be carried away by false religion that does no good to my life, in Jesus name. Amen.