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Footmen

by Shannon Heiden  
3/27/2011 / Devotionals

"If you have raced with mere men on foot, and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble and fall on open and safe ground, how will you manage in the thickets of Jordan? Your brothers, your own family members have turned against you, they have raised complaints against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you."
(Jeremiah 12:5-6 NIV)

Beautiful One, have you ever been face-to-face with men who have worn you out? Not just any men, but brothers, confidants, men you trusted? They can be family members, your closest friends, spiritual leaders, co-workers, husbands, and wives, even children. Do you know what it is to share your life and open your heart to someone just to have your kindness trampled underfoot? To have goodness repaid in full by evil.

Jeremiah understood this, I now understand this and perhaps you the person reading this knows the pain and the brokenness this passage speaks of. This was the Lord's answer to Jeremiahs suffering. Jeremiah cried unto the Lord why? Why has this happened, why have you sent me here with a purpose and a plan, and why have I been rejected and torn to pieces?

It always amazes me the way the Lord deals with His children. The Lord is kindhearted and tender, He is compassionate and understanding, God is merciful and abounding with grace, and yet in our darkest hour, when tears streamline down our face, when the pain is just to unbearable, He speaks a word not to our pain and broken heart but to the warrior, to the over comer, to the spirit man inside of us.

The Lord in my experience very rarely gives an explanation to the injustice done unto us. But, I have learned this, He always speaks a word of victory and hope to keep pressing through.

The Lord told Jeremiah, if running with these men has caused you to lose heart and faint, and these are just men, mere specks on my overall plan, how in the world Jeremiah will you ever race against horses in all their strength? If this small thing in a safe land overcomes you, how will I ever be able to send you into the thickets of Jordan, into a land with giants?

I recently walked through an unforeseen, painful situation. It involved men who were the closest to me, family members. The magnitude of the pain and brokenness I experienced was inflamed by my personal involvement with each of these people.

There is no denying that God himself handpicked all of us to dwell together for a season. What do you do when the plan of God brings forth pain, suffering, and rejection? How do you continue to believe God for everything He has promised in the midst of heartache? How do you not throw your hands up in disbelief and give up?

The Lord has given us the answer. He didn't speak to the why's, He spoke to the warrior, the soldier, the mighty woman He knew would prevail. In this passage He acknowledges the wrong done to us, He acknowledges the fact that we have been lied about, we have been rejected, but He doesn't speak to the problem, He speaks to the future.

It's as if He lovingly, yet firmly says to Jeremiah, to you and to me; I saw it, I see it all. But if this will break you, if these men and their words and actions will destroy you than how can you ever go forward into what I need you to do? How can you ever face the giants that await you? How can you ever take the Promised Land where you will have to fight, although it has been given to you?

Beautiful One, people will hurt you. You cannot escape this reality. But just because there is pain and injustice, does not mean the plans have changed. It only means that the pain was part off the plan all along. God will use every step taken, the good, the bad, and the ugly! We may not understand the "why's" and thats OK. It's too much information to process anyway. If men are wearing you out, trust that God will never let anyone fight you, that He wont ultimately use to bless you further down the road. And most of all, never give up being who you are. Never!

Beautiful one, just believe, and thanks be unto God who always leads us in triumph, and friend, you and I cannot know triumph until we have walked through trouble first!

Shannon Heiden
[email protected]
changingonelifereachingmany.typepad.com

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