Daily Devotional • April 6
A Reading from Jeremiah 23:16-32
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they are deluding you. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’
18 For who has stood in the council of the Lord
so as to see and to hear his word?
Who has given heed to his word so as to proclaim it?
19 Look, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth,
a whirling tempest;
it will burst upon the head of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back
until he has executed and accomplished
the intents of his mind.
In the latter days you will understand it clearly.
21 I did not send the prophets,
yet they ran;
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in my council,
then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,
and they would have turned them from their evil way,
and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God near by, says the Lord, and not a God far off? 24 Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them? says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? says the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26 How long? Will the hearts of the prophets ever turn back—those who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart?27 They plan to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, just as their ancestors forgot my name for Baal.28 Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let the one who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? says the Lord. 29 Is not my word like fire, says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces? 30 See, therefore, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who steal my words from one another. 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their own tongues and say, ‘Says the Lord.’ 32 See, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and who tell them, and who lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or appoint them; so they do not profit this people at all, says the Lord.
Meditation
A woman wrote into the New York Magazine advice column under the pseudonym “Haunted” with the heading “I’m Broke and Mostly Friendless, and I’ve Wasted My Whole Life.” It’s a heartbreaking letter from a woman who, admittedly, thought she was living the dream life in her twenties and had it all figured out, only to find that she’s now 35, alone, and feels “incredibly hollow. And foolish.” She is asking Polly what to do in the face of feeling she has acquired nothing from her life choices.
Polly’s advice? Don’t feel shame; it is the opposite of art. Just be a human being and then the woman will feel successful. It was a nonsensical reply to a letter that very articulately expressed pain. Perhaps Polly’s advice was so muddled because she spent a good deal of her reply admittedly wrestling with her own sense of shame and disappointment in life.
Be wary of prophets that say the reason the world hasn’t been satisfying is not because we were made for a different world, but because you haven’t conformed yourself enough to this one. Instead, let’s hear from the prophet Jeremiah:
“They keep saying to those who despise the word of the Lord, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to all who stubbornly follow their own stubborn hearts, they say, ‘No calamity shall come upon you.’”
I went my own way for a while in my twenties and followed the life that the world around me seemed to respect, a very “Instagram-worthy” life. But the creep of doubt began to seep in and all the “likes” began to feel hollow. I returned to the church, specifically seeking a place that didn’t try to make me feel crazy that I was feeling hollow, but said I was right to feel hollow and that I had come to the right place to be made whole again. There is a temptation to water-down the Christian message, to make the word of the Lord mushy and muddled rather than like a “hammer that breaks a rock in pieces,” as it says in Jeremiah. People like me have already gotten mushy and muddled advice elsewhere and it leaves people feeling more lost and more alone than ever. We the church shouldn’t offer more of the same. It is the false prophets—and those who seek them out—who need help. As the body of Christ, we are in a position to offer it today and everyday
Sarah Cornwell is a laywoman, ballet teacher, and an associate of the Eastern Province of the Community of St. Mary. She and her husband have five children and they live in the Hudson Valley north of New York City.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Iglesia Anglicana de Chile
St. David’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Cocoa Beach, Florida
