Fire in my bones - Jeremiah 17-21

If I were to sum up today's devotional I would ask that you go to your kitchen and retrieve a hot pepper from a jar in the fridge. Now most people might not have a hot pepper in their kitchen but one can always hope. I would ask you to take the biggest and hottest pepper you can find and eat it, without water, in one huge bite. I am sure you know what will happen next. Fire! Fire, happens next. Your mouth will feel as though there is a seven-alarm blaze happening. There is little you can do to prevent it from happening. The chemical reaction of the pepper will make you feel as though your tongue and the roof of your mouth are burning. You don't need to do anything to feel that flame, except eat the pepper - the pepper will do all the rest. Jeremiah, according to 20:10, was in the same position you would be in if you ate the pepper. Let me set the scene for you. Jeremiah has been, up to this point, the faithful mouth piece for God. He has been given a message to preach to the nation of Israel (especially their leaders) and he has done so faithfully. However, the message he has been asked to deliver to the nation is this: Give up and allow yourself to be taken captive by the Babylonians and it will go well with you. If you don't give up and you try to fight for your land and your families you will either die by the Babylonian sword or by famine; but you will die. So, Jeremiah's message would sound like a prophet today saying, give up to the enemy of our soliders and give in. Don't resist. Lay down your sword because you are going to lose anyhow. You see the problem here? Because of Jeremiah's message, the leaders of the day have Jeremiah beaten (more than once ... 20:1-4). Jeremiah, like any one who had been beaten because of his "speaking" decided he would just shut up and not speak anymore for God (20:7-9). Here is where our pepper illustration comes in. Jeremiah was called to speak for God. God had put His words in Jeremiah's mouth and so Jeremiah knows that if God puts His words in your mouth there is nothing you can do but burn. In 20:10 Jeremiah confesses that if he "does shut up" than his bones would burn like fire because God's Word is in his being and it will need to come out. That is how we are to be as Christians. If we truly are believers in the risen Christ; that we are indewlt by the Spirit, then the Spirit has to come out. When you are in Christ and He is in you there is a natural burning and a desire for God-like things to come out of you. If something else is coming out than something is wrong. You can't stop but "feel" God trying to break out. Eat a pepper and ask yourself: Is this what God is like in me? It should be ... but have some water ready just in case.