October 12

Read: Jeremiah 7:21-23

Obey my voice, and I will be your God (Jeremiah 7:23).

I Will Be Your God

Man is incurably religious. In every age and in all localities he seeks for God. In Japan we find him in the Shinto temple; in Burma he worships at a Confucian shrine; in India he bows at a Hindu altar; in Arabia he prays with his face toward Mecca; in Africa he follows the witch man’s magic; in Europe and America he attends the church of his choice — but everywhere he is seeking God.

Deep in man’s soul there is a longing to know God in a satisfying way. Augustine has written, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and the heart never resteth till it findeth rest in Thee.”

Men everywhere hunger to know God, but soul hunger does not assure satisfaction. The search is sometimes futile, or only partially rewarding, for God will not satisfy the soul of man with less than the full truth. Better it is that a man continue to hunger than to have his soul satisfied with husks which cannot nourish the spiritual life. God is a holy God. He gives himself to us only in the measure that we desire to be holy people. His counsel is, “Obey my voice, and I will be your God.” Do our hearts cry out for more of God? Let us ask Him to make us holy. Do we hunger for HIS presence? Let us pray to be cleansed from all that is unlike Him.

Prayer For Today

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise (Psalms 51:10, 16-17).