When faced with tough decisions/ jobs, do you keep going or do you want to quit? No matter where you may be at this time on your walk with or away from God, chances are you may not have it as bad as you think if you look at the weeping prophet, Jeremiah. Even though he is speaking the words that God had ordained him to speak. It is though no one is listening. His message is not a popular message and he does not have many faithful followers. Jeremiah is feeling that the whole world is against him. And that it is all God's fault. I dare say that all people have at times lamented, “Why me?” to God.  Here is a taste of what Jeremiah faced when God told him his job, i.e. proclaim the word.

1. Zedekiah, King of Judah came to Jeremiah and asked if he would go to God and seek a miracle to keep Nebuchadnezzar from attacking them.
2.  Jeremiah came back with the answer:
a) I will not give you a miracle.
b) Not only that, I will make your weapons useless against Nebuchadnezzar.
c) Anyone not killed in war or pestilence will be given as slaves to Nebuchadnezzar.
3.  They made plans against him. (Jeremiah)
A. To kill him—His own family threatened to kill him if he didn’t quit preaching gloom and doom.
B. To create rumors against him---to destroy his effectiveness.
C.  To just ignore him.

            Just for the record, God warned him of all that he would face right from the start and reassured his prophet on several occasions that God will be there for him. In chapter one verse nineteen, He told Jeremiah, “And they shall fight against thee: but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the Lord to deliver thee.”

            Let us look at the scripture with Jeremiah voicing a complaint in chapter twenty verses seven through eighteen:

 ⁷O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.
 ⁸For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.
 ⁹Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.
 ¹⁰For I heard the defaming of many, fear on every side. Report, say they, and we will report it. All my familiars watched for my halting, saying, Peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.
 ¹¹But the LORD is with me as a mighty terrible one: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed; for they shall not prosper: their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten.
 ¹²But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, and seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I opened my cause.
 ¹³Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of evildoers.
 ¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.
 ¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.
 ¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear the cry in the morning, and the shouting at noontide;
 ¹⁷Because he slew me not from the womb; or that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb to be always great with me.
 ¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Jeremiah is human like us. He was in a bad way and complained. Christian people while being new creations in Christ with the Holy Spirit inside are still going to be human and mess up. We complain. It is my thought that Jeremiah needed to suck it up just like we need to do when troubles come. Nowhere in the whole cannon of scripture do we see that those who follow God are promised a joyful existence. That’s funny in an ironic sense because our joy does from the Lord. As Christians, we are to have joy because of Christ, but really, on the contrary, Christ warned his disciples of the troubles they would face for His sake. The apostle Paul had joy because of the Lord, but he suffered constantly. Christ in Acts 9:16 said this about Paul in reference to his conversion, “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.”    

We will see in Jeremiah’s words that although he was upset about his situation deep down he knew God’s deliverance would ultimately come. Jeremiah gets to the point in verse nine that he says: Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

Due to the situation, Jeremiah is done talking about the Lord. He says basically, “I’m done with God. I won’t speak anymore about him. BUT you know I can’t stop talking about him because I know He is true. Jeremiah knows that everyone is against him, but he cannot quit because he knows God. God’s word is like fire and when it gets down in the inside, it burns up everything that is not right by God. It burns up your will and you take on God’s will. It burns up that heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. When the word comes in it will burn up hatred and bring in happiness. It will burn up malice and envy, it will burn up back biting and make you love everybody. When God word really get inside of you can’t do what you want to do. When God’s word get inside you even though you want to quit even though you want to throw in the towel you can’t quit.

As Christians, we know that life is hard and sometimes we wish we could just stay in bed and hide. But we also know that Christ is with us every moment. Christians feel his presence. If you are reading this and you aren’t a Christian, you may think I’m crazy for saying that I feel the presence of the Lord. I don’t expect you to understand it yet. God wants you to come to him. He is at your heart wanting you to accept Christ as Savior. When you do, your eyes as well as your heart will begin to see what Christians have known for over two thousand years.

            Verses fourteen through eighteen show us ole Jeremiah cursing the man who told his dad he was a father, saying God should have killed him, and so forth. We can’t be like that, folks. Some of the greatest Biblical heroes if you will were whiny little drama queens. Moses used every excuse in the book to not lead.  Rahab a prostitute believed in God and helped his chosen people the Israelites. David, the man after God’s own heart, was a murdering adulterer, Elijah after the success on Mount Caramel begged God to let him die, Peter, was always shooting his mouth off , and ole Jeremiah needed tissues because of his situation.  My point is that God used all these imperfect men and woman for greater tasks than they believed they could accomplish.

The burning desire to serve God as a child of the King must remain stronger than the strain of the job itself if we are to continue. The strain gets heavier as we focus on circumstance and the acceptance and opinion of people. The burning gets hotter when we focus on God’s call, provision, and confidence in you as a child. He would never ask you to do a job that was too great to accomplish when we work in his power. He chose Jeremiah to preach the truth. However, God does not require us to be capable. He requires us to be available.