Before It Broke YOUR Heart...It Was His!

[Timl1980]

Everything we love...everything we cherish...everything we simply CANNOT live without...all of that was HIS...before it was ever ours.

 

Of course this isn't new information...we've understood this, instinctively, since the very first time we absolutely knew there WAS a God.

But maybe...just maybe...you haven't REALLY thought about what that means in quite a while.

 

Maybe Satan's world has gotten in the way, maybe your aches and pains have stacked up so high you feel buried under the weight...maybe you just feel like you want it all to end...like another single BREATH is simply too painful to endure.

We KNOW we're not alone in these thoughts, these feelings.

 

We're told to endure...to stay focused on Jehovah and the new system...on our brothers and sisters who are struggling right beside us.

 

We KNOW that's the right thing to do, we KNOW it's the smart move to make...and yet, we just want to give up...to close out eyes, unclench our fists and just...LET GO!

 

How much easier that would be...how much relief would flood through our bodies...to finally be at peace...to finally have a place to rest...a place where Jehovah can just come get us whenever he's ready.

 

And yet...and yet we recognize that's not the reality...we UNDERSTAND that we have to keep fighting...we must KEEP squaring up our shoulders each morning and facing down a world that hates us....millions of unfaithful spirit creatures who are CRAVING to get at us....to reduce us to a quivering pile of tears...and our own imperfections which hover us like a cloud of blood hungry mosquitoes.

 

*Sigh*...okay, here we go:

 

Jeremiah 45:1-5: "This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Barʹuch the son of Ne·riʹah when he wrote in a book these words dictated by Jeremiah in the fourth year of Je·hoiʹa·kim son of Jo·siʹah, the king of Judah: 2 “This is what Jehovah the God of Israel says concerning you, Barʹuch, 3 ‘You have said: “Woe to me, for Jehovah has added grief to my pain! I am weary from my groaning, and I have found no resting-place.”’ 4 “You should say to him, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “Look! What I have built up I am tearing down, and what I have planted I am uprooting—the entire land. 5 But you are seeking great things for yourself. Stop seeking such things.”’ “‘For I am about to bring a calamity on all flesh,’ declares Jehovah, ‘and wherever you may go, I will grant you your life as a spoil."

 

Yes...we all KNOW this account...we've studied it many many times.

 

Yes, we all KNOW Baruch was seeking greater things...the Watchtower even brings out that with his upbringing and status...it couldn't have been easy for him to listen to all of Jeremiah's denunciation messages. 

 

But after the brothers told us to start looking for what we could learn about JEHOVAH in the accounts as we read them, I went back and took another look at this account.

 

Do you see it?

 

Verse 3: FOUR TIMES Baruch speaks about HIS pain...HIS woe's...HIS groaning...HIS lack of a resting place.

 

Can I really blame him??

 

His whole world was falling apart...everything that felt familiar was being threatened...his entire future was uncertain...up in the air.

 

We don't KNOW what those greater things were that he was seeking, but we do know from his own words that he was looking for a RESTING PLACE.

 

But now...what does Jehovah do?

 

Does he tell Baruch that his pain doesn't matter...that he needs to "be stronger"?

 

No...LOOK at what Jehovah SAYS: "You should say to him, ‘This is what Jehovah says: “Look! What I have built up I am tearing down, and what I have planted I am uprooting—the entire land."

 

How amazing is that?? 

 

Jehovah readjusts his vision by reminding him that it was JEHOVAH who had planted all this...it was JEHOVAH who had  built everything around Baruch that he loved, that he cherished...that he was going to be losing.

 

Suddenly Baruch isn't alone anymore...now Jehovah is right there...standing next to this distraught man...REMINDING him that BEFORE Baruch ever loved any of it...Jehovah loved ALL of it.

 

Now to all my dear brothers and sisters out there hurting...out there barely hanging on...please understand that before you lost that person in your life who chose Satan's world over Jehovah's...Jehovah loved them before you did.

 

Before you lost that person in death...Jehovah's love was already wrapped around them...and it still is.

That body that's literally wearing out underneath you...Jehovah DESIGNED you to love forever.

 

The cruelty we see everywhere we look...Jehovah despised it long before we ever existed.

 

That brother or sister you're currently watching struggle in YOUR hall? Jehovah saw the tears pouring out of their hearts long before you ever saw their red eyes.

And to those of you who feel so worn out that you just want to give in and give up...please look at what Jehovah told Baruch in verse 5. 

 

No, not the part about him seeking greater things...I'm talking about the part we often overlook: "For I am about to bring a calamity on all flesh,’ declares Jehovah, ‘and wherever you may go, I will grant you your life as a spoil."

 

Notice that?

 

Baruch wanted a "resting place"...the man was worn out...exhausted...emotionally spent.

 

Of course Jehovah knew that...he knew that better than Baruch himself. But did Jehovah give Baruch what he wanted?

 

No...he gave the man exactly what he NEEDED!

 

Not just his life...don't just concentrate on that part! Look at what he said directly before that: WHEREVER YOU MAY GO!!

 

Friends...Jehovah couldn't offer Baruch what he WANTED...so he gave Baruch a kind of security the man didn't even know he should ask for...it's like he said, don't WORRY about where you physically end up...because there's no place on earth where my promise cannot reach you!

 

And that's how I'm going to end this post...for everyone who's hurting...in whichever way that's manifesting itself in your life...just know that before you ever loved or lost any of it...Jehovah loved it first...and he is aching to give it back.

[cme]

Tim, my brother

 

You have reached my heart.  That's why we have this brotherhood worldwide to console and strengthen one another.   Jehovah uses each and everyone of us and makes them equal to our pain and then the words just start to flow like "Elihu".

 

Thank you.