After Jeremiah asked three
questions which cause his readers to question and examine themselves,
he begins three actions they should employ in response. The first was
searching and trying their ways and turning to the LORD, and in
chapter three and verse forty-one we discover the second of those
directives where we read:
Let us lift up our
heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.
The
verse begins, “Let us lift up our heart with our
hands...” Once again Jeremiah
uses the word “Let” which
means “allow, let it be, and authorize”, and again he uses the
word “us” which
includes those to whom he is writing and himself. His command is to
“lift up” or “bear
up and carry” “our heart”
which is our “inner man, mind, will, soul, and understanding”
“with our hands” or
with the “palm, hand, sole, palm of the hand, hollow or flat of the
hand”. If we use our imaginations we can picture putting our hearts
and souls within the palm of our hands and lifting them up toward the
sky.
The
verse continues, “...unto God in the heavens.” It is one
thing to lift up our hearts in our hands, but it is quite another to
whom we lift it. In this case Jeremiah encourages those who will
adhere to his exhortation to lift up their souls “unto God in
the heavens”. There is no greater place to lift up our hearts,
and once a person has searched, tried and turned their ways, the
natural response is to lift their souls towards God in heaven.
Have we
examined ourselves and found that we have great need to “lift up
our heart with our hands unto God”? Do our souls cry out for
the Almighty in the midst of our deprivation? Perhaps as we ponder
this verse we too will allow ourselves to hold as it were our hearts
in our hands, lift them towards the God in heaven, and allow Him to
direct us in His providential care.
Next
time we will see Jeremiah's directive concerning transgression and
rebellion, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.
Until
tomorrow...there is more...
Look
for the daily devotional book “Equipped for Battle – From
Generation to Generation”, the marriage book “So, You Want to Be
Married”, and the new devotional “One Year in the Sermon on the
Mount” in all major bookstore sites, www.amazon.com ;
www.barnesandnobles.com ; download to e-books, and find it locally at
www.mrzlc.com/bookstore
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