Week 24 Jeremiah
When I’m reading-through I usually think my job – my only job – is to read through. It’s not to do other things. Which isn’t always the easiest thing to do and I got a reminder of one of those Other Things today – prayer.
Prayer is a totally different exercise to reading-through. But it’s hard to keep the two separated because most of what I find out about prayer I find in the bible.
Jeremiah 20 is pretty much a verbatim prayer. Since I’m reading-through I can’t avoid it. And so I incidentally find out something about prayer.
It’s a Downside Prayer. Jeremiah identifies a bunch of the price-to-pay social outcomes that come with being a prophet:
Now I am mocked by everyone in the city…
These messages…have made me a household joke…
I have heard…many rumors about me…
My old friends are…waiting for a fatal slip.
By the end of the prayer Jeremiah hasn’t turned the psychic-corner – the last five verses talk about how he wished he was dead.
Jeremiah reminds me that following the Lord isn’t a cakewalk. Plus I might end up losing friends. And along with that he reminds me of a couple of things about prayer:
I can pray when things are pretty bad
My prayers might be untidy
I can pray but still end up feeling awful.
Note: quotes from Jeremiah 20:7, 8, 10 (NLT). Added note that’s not in Jeremiah but that I think is true: a poor prayer is better than no prayer.