You are not responsible for how others respond - Jeremiah 1-6

In past years the devotional from this section had a focus on Jeremiah's mission as the messenger of God. In that focus the theme was: You can't choose your message when you are the messenger. When God chooses you to be the messenger of God you don't get to decide what to say. You are to deliver God's Word. But, not only did Jeremiah have to deliver "God's" message, he was not to worry about the response of those who heard the message. In 5:14 God tells the prophet he is also not to worry about the response of the people. In fact, God warns Jeremiah that the message to be delivered will be like flame to dried wood. We get so worried that people will be offended by the Word of the Gospel. We simply don't like people to be uncomfortable as we share the plan of salvation or the sovereignty of God, or some other great doctrine. What God is telling the prophet in this section is that he is not responsible for the way the people respond and he needs to know they will not like the message. We need to quit worring about how people respond to the message of forgiveness and love. We need to not worry if it offends them to hear that sin will be judged. We need to realize that the God of the universe has given us both the message and the stamina to not worry about the response. It is way too common that people are more worried about the response to the message of God than the crediability of the message of God. Let's realize that God's word is flame and man's sin is stubble. God intends for the Wisdom of God to be offensive to the wisdom of man (1 Corinthians 1). Let's not worry about how God works. Let's just do the work.