July 7, 2026 – Polished
I bet many people in past generations thought like many of us today think – that we are living in the toughest times there ever have been and God must be coming soon to end it all because there’s just no hope; but, thankfully in each generation God raises up someone who inspires that generation (and many after) to keep hoping and striving for better. In just the first lines of Max Lucado’s You Can Count on God for today, he connected some of the dots for me about Jeremiah and the times he lived in which offers hope to those who have fallen into doubt.
Max starts with Lamentations 3:25 NASB – “The Lord is good to those who await Him, to the person who seeks Him” and then explains, “Jeremiah was the prophet of Judah during one of her darkest periods of rebellion. They called him the weeping prophet because he was one. He wept at the condition of the people and the depravity of their faith. He was anxious enough to write a book called Lamentations. But then he considered the work of God.”
As I read that last line, I wondered what resource he looked to that helped him consider the works of God. Something written or was it by memory? When was the Bible put into book form (I should know that shouldn’t I) or was all of his knowledge just passed down to him verbally and they all just had to remember everything? I have trouble remembering things from the past about myself much less what others have told me about anyone else – even about God and the stories in the Bible. I, however, can refresh my memory easily by opening the Bible (one of many available to me in my home) and if I don’t know where to go in the Bible for a particular story or topic, I can Google! (Something I could not do in the early days of my faith – not even into my middle ages of faith.)
Speaking of which, Google explains, “While there was no single bound ‘Bible’ as we know it today, the people of Jeremiah’s time possessed a growing collection of sacred written texts. The concept of a unified Old Testament canon did not emerge until later, but individual scrolls and written records were actively circulating.” Circulating? Scrolls were handwritten not copied on a machine like we have available today in print shops and even in our homes. And, I bet the material used for writing (paper and ink) was not readily available to everyone so I wonder how many households had access to the written word. It speaks volumes about what was important in the homes and lives of the God-fearing people of those times that they could indeed consider and lean into the stories and laws etc that God had provided.
Max continues, “[Jeremiah] purposefully lifted his mind to thoughts about his king, whose ‘acts of mercy…do not end, for His compassions never fail’ (Lamentations 3:22 NASB). Lift up your eyes. Don’t get lost in your troubles. Dare to believe that good things will happen. Dare to believe that God was speaking to you when he said, [my favorite verse] ‘In everything God works for the good of those who love him’ (Romans 8:28 NCV).”
What Max reminds us here is important, “The mind cannot at the same time be full of God and full of fear.”
JC – “Trust Me in all your thoughts. I know that some thoughts are unconscious or semiconscious, and I do not hold you responsible for those. But you can direct conscious thoughts much more than you may realize. Practice thinking in certain ways – trusting Me, thanking Me – and those thoughts become more natural. Reject negative or sinful thoughts as soon as you become aware of them…. confess them and leave them with Me. GO on your way lightheartedly.”
Prevail #188 – Ezekiel 37:4 – Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!'” Jeremiah prophesied to people with hardened hearts, but at least they were alive. Larson reminds us of the seemingly impossible task God asked of Ezekiel. “God called Ezekiel to prophesy to a valley of dried-out bones (they’d been dead a long time). Not just any dried, dead bones, but a nation buried in despair and hopelessness. God called it a grave of exile.”
Remember Larson’s words here, if you get nothing else out of today, “Yet God can bring life to anything, anytime, anywhere. The wind of the Spirit blew, the valley of the old bones reassembled, and they came to life and formed a great army!” She explains that, “This is such a picture of God’s order of things. First he builds an infrastructure, and then He adds the strength. Then He mobilizes us into our God-given purpose. As you speak life into your dead valleys, understand that God is a God of order, and He works from the inside out…. Believe, wait, and watch for God to do the impossible.”
Streams – Isaiah 49:2 – “He made me into a polished arrow.” Cowman tells about how the collectible stones at Pebble Beach, on the California coast, are “tossed, rolled, rubbed together, and ground against the sharp edges of the cliffs” which ultimately makes them into “beautiful round stones.” She then points out that there is a protected cove nearby “with an abundance of pebbles never sought by travelers” because, “The quietness and peace have left them as they have always been – rough, unpolished, and devoid of beauty – for polish is the result of difficulties. Since God knows what niche we are to fill, let us trust Him to shape us to it. And since He knows what work we are to do, let us trust Him to grind us so we will be properly prepared.”
Utmost – Matthew 7:13-14 – “Enter ye in at the strait gate…: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way….” Chambers adds to the discussion about being prepared by God for service, “If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult.” I want to ask, here, if it is really that ALL noble things have to be difficult. Shouldn’t there be some noble things that come naturally to us? I suppose that if they do, someone from the outside looking in will have something to say that casts doubt and makes it difficult for us. Don and I have a framed saying hanging in our home that we originally had in one of our rental houses that we were remodeling to turn into a business. A noble enough cause. It is probably a familiar saying to most everyone, “If it was easy, everyone would do it.”
Chambers points out how we are to respond in the face of whatever oppositions come our way, “The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvellous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest? God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living…. If we obey the Spirit of God and practise in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us. Thank God that He does give us difficult things to do! …God’s grace turns out men and women with a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ, not milksops. It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things. It is always necessary to make an effort to be noble.”
JA – “I AM THE GATE; whoever enters through Me will be saved. I am the only Entrance to the path of Life – to eternal Life…. Some people compare the spiritual journey to climbing a mountain. There are many paths that lead to the summit, and all the successful climbers will end up at the same place. People often use this analogy to claim that all paths to God are equally effective. Nothing could be further from the truth! You can enter salvation only through Me, the one true Gate…. I don’t guarantee you an easy journey, but I do promise to be with you every moment.”
The journey, after accepting Christ as our Savior, is where the “many paths” analogy does come into play. I heard the preacher Tony Evans many years ago comparing our life’s journey to getting to a downtown area from a suburb. God has a best way for us to handle issues in our lives; but, as believers, if we choose a different path because of the free will He gives us, He will lovingly reach out to lead and walk with us on the alternate path to get us where He wants us to be (if we will take His hand and his leading). But, we have to go through the tollbooth, His Gate, to get to those pathways. If we bypass the Gate, we will be wandering through alternate routes and reaching many dead ends on our own and won’t have access to the safer options through salvation that He offers on the other side of the Gate.
JL – “Everlasting God, You, the Creator of the universe, are with me and for me. You are all I need! When I feel as if something is lacking, it’s because I’m not connecting with You at a deep level. You offer me abundant Life. Help me respond to Your abundance by receiving Your blessings gratefully – trusting in Your provision and refusing to worry about anything. I’m learning that it’s not primarily the adverse events in my world that make me anxious; the main culprit is my thoughts about those events…. At such times, I desperately need to switch my focus from the problem to Your Presence…. You are God my Savior! In Your redeeming Name, Jesus, Amen.”
This is about the many experiences we have during our lives after being saved, not the ultimate experience we have of accepting Christ as our Savior and then living our lives on that foundation. It’s sort of like going through a toll booth on a major highway. That one leads directly to our ultimate goal.
