Listen! The voice, the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country: “Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images–with foreign idols?” Jeremiah 8:19
People get provoked to anger when others do not do what is right. When a person violates the rights of someone else, the other person will be upset and seek vengeance for what was done wrong. Often people do not see what they are doing when they are provoking others to anger, all they see is what they want to do.
Jeremiah quotes God talking about how the people are asking if God is not in Zion–Jerusalem. He then asks why they have provoked Him to anger with their idols.
One of the most common questions people like to ask is where God is. This is asked when a person is in the middle of trouble or difficulties. They do not understand the problems that they are going through has often been caused by unrepented sin, provoking God to anger.
It is easy for a person to say that one believes in God and is a Christian. It is another thing to actually live according to that belief.
Going into many churches, one may ask where God is. The worship services are pumped full of exciting music, but the Spirit of God is missing. Sermons are either dead dry, or they are empty, even though filled with pleasant thoughts and feel-good words.
Lives are not being changed. this is often occurring because God’s people, just like the Israelites, have turned to idols in their lives. They worship their social status, paychecks, playtimes, own abilities, material things, job, and many other things, rather than worshipping and serving God.
God is to be the ONLY God in a believer’s life. Examine your life and see if God is in it. See if God can be pleased with your walk through this life. Ask yourself if you are walking with God and in His ways, or if you are walking alone and in the ways of God. See if there are any idols in your life that you worship, provoking God to anger.
Repent of those things and put God back on the throne of your life. Keep from provoking God to anger with sin.
Today I pray that you will know Jesus as your Lord and Savior; that God will reveal idols in your life; that God will give you strength to get rid of idols in your life; and that your life will not be one that provokes God to anger.
Picture by Timothy Eberly on Unsplash
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