Gracious is the LORD, and righteous....

" What shall I render unto the LORD for all HIS benefits toward me?" 

Psalm 116:12

You know sometimes it's rather hard to get spiritual encouragement from passages in the Bible that are difficult to understand. Sometimes the difficult passages tend to be skipped over or  maybe they are read over with much speed.

Do you ever do that? Skip over a passage... or read over words with such speed that nothing is implanted in the heart or mind?

Well, today while reading through Jeremiah chapter 2, I felt that way.

It wasn't that the passage was difficult to understand, but my mind had a difficult time grasping the many admonitions of the LORD against the people of Judah. They were many!

You know sometimes you feel like the passage you are reading doesn't really relate to you. And I think that's where we often go wrong. We treat the words as mere "history"... facts that happened in the past.

But as I kept reading through the chapter, the LORD spoke to me as I neared the end. A verse spoke to me so strongly that I stopped to meditate on it for a long time.

" Can a maid forget her ornaments, or the bride her attire? 

Yet my people have forgotten me days without number." 

Jeremiah 2:32

Wow. God is so clear and detailed.

Have you ever thought of that? Can a bride forget her attire? We would instantly think, " Of course not!" Impossible. I mean,really, how can a bride forget her dress?

And yet... we forget God. And think nothing of it.

That's when the spirit of God made me stop. I thanked the Lord for His faithfulness.... for even when I am unfaithful, He remains faithful!

It makes me so sad to know how often I've grieved the LORD... through my lack of placing Him first, or forgetting His benefits because things "are going well".

Not to mention how I grieve Him when I take things in my own hands... thinking I can make it "all better"... all by myself. Because in reality that's what I do when I don't trust the LORD... when I fret or am anxious.

You know, it isn't just the people of Judah... that have grieved the LORD.

"For my people have committed two evils; 

They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters..." 

Jeremiah 2:13

The verse applies today to us as well... to me.

I'm grateful for the wonderful reminder today... to give the Lord God due honor and glory in my life... in trusting and obeying His word... in forgetting not His benefits.

Thankful for the Lord's mercy that endureth forever!

"...yea, our GOD is merciful." 

Psalm 116: 5

May you be encouraged to offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving... and call upon the name of the LORD always.
~Ellie