Our distress is great, O Lord, and there were times when your people of old did not turn to You.

May that not be Your Church today. We need You to notice, to hear our cry for help and remold us into useful vessels for You.

Help us to be reliable for the sake of Your name. Help us to repent of our evil ways and practices, so that we may be blessed with Your Holy Spirit’s comfort. #steadfastlove

We abhor stubbornness, willful sins and muddied paths. Please restore Your highway of salvation through the wilderness. Do not turn Your back on us.

We are the work of Your hand. Please give us a willing heart. -Teresa

Jeremiah 18:5-17 (ESV)

⁵ Then the Lord gave me this message: ⁶ “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. ⁷ If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, ⁸ but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned.⁹ And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, ¹⁰ but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.

¹² But the people replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We will continue to live as we want to, stubbornly following our own evil desires.”

¹¹ “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’”

¹³ So this is what the Lord says:

“Has anyone ever heard of such a thing,
    even among the pagan nations?
My virgin daughter Israel
    has done something terrible!
¹⁴ Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon?
    Do the cold streams flowing from those distant mountains ever run dry?
¹⁵ But my people are not so reliable, for they have deserted me;
    they burn incense to worthless idols.
They have stumbled off the ancient highways
    and walk in muddy paths.
¹⁶ Therefore, their land will become desolate,
    a monument to their stupidity.
All who pass by will be astonished
    and will shake their heads in amazement.
¹⁷ I will scatter my people before their enemies
    as the east wind scatters dust.
And in all their trouble I will turn my back on them
    and refuse to notice their distress.”

Psalm 138:7,8 (ESV)

[7] Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me. [8] The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever. Do not forsake the work of your hands.