Bible Passage: “But if I say, ‘I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,’ his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.” (Jeremiah 20:9 NIV)
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 20:7-18
What drives you?
The motivations that not only fill your heart, but occupy your head, and move your hands?
What burns inside you that will scorch you to cinders if you do not let it out?
Today’s passage sits inside what is known as Jeremiah’s sixth lament. In the historical context, Jeremiah has just been beaten and put in the stocks (by a priest). This is the first, but not the last, violence that Jeremiah will endure in his service to God.
His initial (and understandable) reaction is outrage. How can God allow this to happen to one of His servants?!
It is in the middle of this confusion and frustration that we find, surprisingly, the admission in today’s verse.
It is a deep theological reality—God’s words are not simply something he possesses as a prophet; they are a force that possesses him.
The word of God burning within Jeremiah’s mind and heart threatens to consume him if he keeps them to himself. Jeremiah cannot keep them to himself; to do so would be to act as the instrument of his own destruction.
But even if he wanted to, it burns so fiercely that it is a physical impossibility.
He cannot contain God’s words; they will force their way out of him.
Men, it is a disaster that we can be most passive when the stakes are the highest. In our marriages, parenting, friendships, and work, we may find it easiest for the sake of self-preservation to hold our tongues.
And in that silence, a fire threatens.
As men who are formed by Scripture, the words of God, we have within us the same embers that threatened Jeremiah. We have a message for our lives and the lives of those around us, a message that needs to be spoken.
We need to bring the wisdom of Scripture to life before it burns us from within.
Prayer: God, thank You for the gift that Scripture is. Thank You for Your love, wisdom, and character that are revealed within its pages. Help me to breathe the fire of Your message into the lives I can touch. Amen.
Reflection: Where are you holding in the fire of God’s words? What conversation can (should) you have this week to bring life to someone?
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