Are You Tired of the Race?

 

In Jeremiah chapter 12, Jeremiah is complaining to the Lord about the hardship of the times he is living in. Things are not easy for him; he is facing challenges that he doesn’t know how to deal with, and it is irritating him. He asks the Lord how long these challenges will continue.

Now, in the times we live in, this ‘Covid Era’, we too can complain about all that is happening around us. I know I have done this too… “Lord, they are taking away our freedoms, taking away our ability to gather for worship, declaring church non-essential…and I’m tired of it. How long will this continue?”

How does God answer Jeremiah…and me?

In fact, He doesn’t answer the complaint, He refocuses both Jeremiah’s and my perspective in this verse:

“If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses?

If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?”

 

Is the state of the world causing you to stumble in your faith? Are the regulations and lockdowns causing you to question the presence or power of God? Are you drifting aimlessly from week to week, not engaging with church meetings, prayer times, bible reading?

I believe the Lord is asking us: If this battle makes you tired, when you are in relative safety and freedom with no real physical threat or fear of persecution, how will you cope with what is coming down the line?

I’m not saying that it isn’t a difficult time and I recognise that we are facing challenges, but what if this is ‘racing against mere men’ and we can expect there to be a ‘race against horses’ in the future.

Jeremiah was finding it hard where he was but there were much more difficult times ahead in his future. He was struggling in Anathoth but he had no idea that he would be put into stocks, into a cistern, and imprisoned later on in Jerusalem, Babylon and Egypt.

James tells us to thank God for the hard times in our lives because we know that they have a deeper purpose. ‘Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.’ James 1:2-4

What if God is preparing us for the times to come when we will have to face horses? What if we need to run against mere men to push us to trust in the Lord in a deeper way?

God will never ask us to contend with horsemen until he has trained us in contending with footmen. (Morgan) What if the patience and endurance James wrote about is being developed in us now, so we can face the horses and thickets of Jordan down the line?

The reality is that there is worse coming; the Bible doesn’t hide that from us. In the end times there will be a persecution like we’ve never seen. The world will become an even more wicked place. There will be a great falling away from the church and the faith. Who knows if, like Jeremiah, we will be imprisoned or worse for our faith in Jesus? But if the challenges we are facing now cause us to walk away from our faith, how will we hope to survive in the days to come when things will be a lot worse than they are now?

I keep thinking about this and I hear a quiet voice saying:

• ·        Read your bible because there may come a time when owning and reading one will be illegal;
• ·        Learn bible verses by heart because there may be a day when you need to speak them back to yourself and you have no bible to hand;
• ·        Pray with the Body of Christ because there may come a time when you will be forbidden from praying out loud;
• ·        Worship with your family in Christ because there may come a day when you will be forbidden from singing the name of Jesus;
• ·        Reach out and tell what God has done for you because there is coming a day when you will be forbidden to evangelise or speak the name of Jesus.

Christian – I urge you to allow the times we live in to drive you into a deeper, more intimate dependence on God. Everything is being stripped away; all the distractions, the time-fillers, the excuses are being shut down so that God can prepare His people for the coming days. Let the challenges cause us to call out to the Lord for Him to develop in us the faith, the patience, and the endurance we will need to face what’s ahead. He knows what we need for now and for the future, and He is faithful to produce it in us if we yield to His shaping.

For now, we have technology; we have freedom to reach out and share our stories, our lives, the gospel, our faith in Jesus; we have a reach that we have never had before. Let’s not fall in the open ground, in the safe place we still have as Christians. Let’s use what time we have to be a blessing to our family, friends, and communities, and let God lead the way through the challenges.

There are many, many people who have no understanding of the times we live in, but as Christians, you and I know that God is moving, maybe one last time, before the end. Let’s not opt out because of the challenges we face. Let’s remember their purpose and stay as close to God as we can.

Jesus said in John16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

I believe God shows us these things to warn us and prepare us, and to let us know that in Him is the only true refuge; only in Him can we possibly hope to have peace. That kind of peace in the midst of trouble only comes to those who know the end of the story - Jesus has already won. He is victorious and we will be too, if we don’t fall away.

I join with Paul and Timothy when they wrote that they were ‘…confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.’ Php 1:6

God is faithful and whether it is against mere men or horses, on open ground or in thickets, He will give us everything we need.