READ: Jeremiah 6:1-9:3
THINK: Reread verses 8:18-9:3 out loud slowly. This is Jeremiah’s grieving over the way Judah ignores God. In 9:3, God interrupts and agrees.
What makes God grieve that also makes you grieve? What breaks your heart that breaks the heart of God? Perhaps it resembles the following: the wickedness of people (such as genocide or sex-trafficking in the world), the lack of desire – even among professed believers – to know God, the diseases that terrorize people’s bodies.
Read those verses one more time, reflecting on the tragic circumstance that breaks your heart and also breaks the heart of God. What words or phrases in this passage best express your own grief? What does it feel like to grieve over things that grieve God? How do you respond to the idea that God often weeps throughout the prophetic portion of the Bible and that we need to honor that grief and join him?
PRAY: Grieve with God in prayer as a prophet (like Jeremiah), using the phrases in the passage that stood out to you. Don’t feel that you have to tidy up your prayer with a positive ending, although “God, help!” would be appropriate.
LIVE: Read the newspaper, watch the news, or go to a news website today – and look carefully for the things in the news that God surely grieves over. Notice how different such listening is from the detached curiosity with which we sometimes consume news. Try to hear and see the events around you with the ears and eyes of God. And then ask him how he wants you to respond.
Adapted from Eugene Peterson in Solo
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