No one may listen!

It is difficult to imagine how difficult the ministry of Jeremiah must have been. It is reported that Jeremiah had no visible success within his time of ministry.  Not a single person is believed to have responded to the ministry of this man of God.  Here in our verse for the day the LORD tells Jeremiah that is exactly what is going to happen; no one will listen, and no one will respond.

As a pastor, one of the great encouragements of my life is to see the ministry that I am doing result in the fruit of lives that are changed for God.  There are times in my ministry that I wonder if I am having any impact at all in the world.  God is always faithful at those times to send someone to me to remind me that God is working through me to reach His children.

Jeremiah lived in a time and place that the people’s hearts were hard toward God.  They didn’t want to hear from God and they had no intention of responding to Him even if they did hear from Him.  He was in the most difficult ministry of all; proclaiming the gospel to people who don’t want to hear it and don’t feel they need it.

Nothing has changed in the world in the last 2,500 years.  There are still people who have no desire to hear from God.  There are still people who want nothing to do with God or the things of God.  Those people are all around us.  Some might even be in your own family.  They can even be in your church!  What should we do with those people in our lives?  The very same thing that Jeremiah was told to do; tell them what God wants them to know.

God would tell you the same thing He told Jeremiah, keep telling them the truth.  They aren’t going to listen, and they aren’t going to respond but you keep warning them and telling them the truth.  We can never fully know the impact we are having on others.  Even though it appears that they are not listening or responding, we can’t know what is going on in their hearts.  The seeds that we plant in their lives may take a long time to sprout and there may not be fruit until long after they are gone from our lives.

God is calling us to be faithful to Him and to the ministry that He has given us.  Whether or not we get to see any fruit from that ministry is wholly up to God.  We will be evaluated based on our obedience to God’s call on our lives, not based on the fruit that we produce.  The fruit is God’s responsibility, obedience is ours.  Jesus, help us to faithfully obey You regardless of the results that we see around us.

Daily Bible Reading: Jeremiah 6:16-8:7; Colossians 2:8-23; Psalm 78:1-31; Proverbs 24:26