“Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all… Do not omit a word!” (Jeremiah 26:2)
It’s easy to avoid saying the hard things. It’s hard to have hard conversations. Nobody likes to tell the whole truth because it puts us at risk, it makes us vulnerable to disapproval, to hatred, to shame, to the unknown.
I find great comfort in knowing Jeremiah had to be reminded not to leave anything out. Every preacher has been tempted to teach only the parts of the gospel that sound like good news… even the great prophets of old.
When it comes time to talk about personal responsibility to evangelize – we know it makes people uncomfortable. We know that sermons on heaven are more appreciated than sermons on hell… and everyone would rather hear about the comforts Christ offers than the sacrifices He expects. It’s just human nature to want to tread on easy ground instead of charge into the hard fights.
But God told Jeremiah to not omit a word, Paul told the Ephesians he didn’t shirk from declaring the whole counsel of God, and the 119th Psalm tells us that the sum of God’s Word is where truth is found. If we leave out the hard parts, we leave the story incomplete and we don’t do anyone any favors with that.
Christianity is full of sweet words like ‘joy’, ‘hope’, ‘love’, and ‘grace’. It’s also packed with words like ‘repent’, ‘obedience’, ‘sacrifice’, and ‘tribulation’. These words aren’t opposites, they are pairings. The sweet and the salty that leads to a life worth living. God’s grace is sweetest to those who have humbled themselves under His mighty hand and heaven is best longed for by those who have sacrificed this world to gain it.
Don’t omit a word. You don’t want to miss a bit of His story.
Matthew 4:4 #Biblebites