How To Pray After We Disobey - Jeremiah 12-16

Jeremiah 14:19-22 (ESV)

19 Have you utterly rejected Judah?

Does your soul loathe Zion?

Why have you struck us down

so that there is no healing for us?

We looked for peace, but no good came;

for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,

and the iniquity of our fathers,

for we have sinned against you.

21 Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;

do not dishonor your glorious throne;

remember and do not break your covenant with us.

22 Are there any among the false gods of the nations that can bring rain?

Or can the heavens give showers?

Are you not he, O LORD our God?

We set our hope on you,

for you do all these things.

When we sin and God is going to discipline you, how do you pray?   The above portion of Jeremiah’s prophecy gives us some key ways to pray after we have disobeyed God.   God has actually told Jeremiah to not pray.  Because of their inquiry against Him and their worshipping false gods, God has said He will not answer their prayers.  

Jeremiah 14:11-12 (ESV)

The LORD said to me: “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”

But the prophet does appeal to God and here is how he does so:

V. 19 & 20 - Confession - Jeremiah begins by confessing to God the very thing God was accusing the nation of doing.  He confesses that they have rebelled and looked for peace in all the wrong places.  He speaks for the nation and acknowledges that God has struck them down for their disobedience.  

V. 21 - Recognition - Jeremiah does not appeal to his own righteousness, nor any righteousness left in the far reaching corners of the nation.   Instead he appeals to the holiness of God.  He appeals to God’s faithfulness to His name and His covenant He made with Israel.  Jeremiah knows that God can’t go back on His own covenant.   When God makes a promise we can rely on God’s promise.   Jeremiah may have remembered this verse from Moses’ writings:

Numbers 23:19 (ESV)

God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should change his mind.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

V. 22 - Glorification - Jeremiah ends by giving glory to God for who He is and worships Him based upon His mighty acts.  He magnifies God over all other gods and praises Him for His gifts.  In their discipline God had taken away their rain (read about Elijah).   Jeremiah worships God for giving them rain and sings praise to God for the hope they have only in Him.   

Jeremiah shows us how to pray to God when we have fallen away and have lost our way.   We confess our sin and acknowledge the promises of God to bring praise and glory to Him.