Text: Jeremiah 2:12-17
Memory Verse: “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).
God repeatedly lamented the Israelites’ ignorance of His person, their tendency to regularly forget Him over a long period of time, and hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water for themselves. He attributes all their woes to this singular malady.
Jeremiah 2:32 & 33 AMP says, “Can a maid forget and neglect [to wear] her ornaments, or a bride her [marriage] girdle [with its significance like that of a wedding ring]? Yet My people have forgotten Me, days without number. How you deck yourself and direct your way to procure [adulterous] love! Because of it even wicked women have learned [indecent] ways from you.” God, also, attributed all the woes of the people to this singular problem.
Abandoning God for cheap alternatives brought the following dire consequence on the children of Israel; “Why has Israel become a nation of slaves? Why has she been carried away as plunder? Lions have roared against her. The land has been destroyed, and the cities are now in ruins. No one lives in them anymore. Egyptians, marching from their cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes, have utterly destroyed Israel’s glory and power (Jeremiah 2:14-16 NLT).
Anything this world has to offer is nothing but a cheap substitute. There’s no drug, no experience, no pleasure, no power, no security or any other thing in this world that even comes close to what it means to be a real follower of Jesus and to discover what we were made for.
Prayer Points:
1. O Lord, my God, please deliver me and this Nation from seeking cheap alternatives to You.
2. Whatever I am suffering as a result of seeking alternatives to You, Father, in Your mercy, forgive and put an end to it.