Jeremiah 42:3 “Pray that the LORD your God will tell us where we should go and what we should do.” (NIV)

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There is a wrong way to respond to answered prayer. This is it. 

Chapters 42 and 43 of Jeremiah can make you absolutely crazy. Take five minutes sometime and read these two chapters back-to-back. See if they don’t puzzle you, confuse you, and maybe even make you angry. 

I tense up every year as I anticipate reading this text. It grieves me. 

As a pastor, coach, consultant, mentor, and friend, I have had people come and say, “Pray for me,” and I have prayed for them. Like these people long ago with Jeremiah, some of them then refuse to listen to what God clearly says. 

Jeremiah is a better man than I, of course. He prayed, God answered, and Jeremiah told the people what God had said. It was just like they requested in 42:3 above. Then you flip the page to Chapter 43. How do they respond? Right in the middle of Verse 2, we find the beginning of their answer. Take a look:

Azariah son of Hoshaiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to settle there.’ But Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Babylonians, so they may kill us or carry us into exile to Babylon.” So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers and all the people disobeyed the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah. Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers led away all the remnant of Judah who had come back to live in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been scattered. They also led away all those whom Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan—the men, the women, the children and the king’s daughters. And they took Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah along with them.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭43‬:‭2‬-‭6‬ ‭NIV‬‬

While we’re flipping pages here, go back to chapter 40. Nebuzaradan, the Babylonian officer in charge, told Jeremiah

“The LORD your God decreed this disaster for this place. And now the LORD has brought it about; he has done just as he said he would. All this happened because you people sinned against the Lord and did not obey him.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭40‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In other words, everything Jeremiah had warned the people about over the course of his life in ministry came true. Make no mistake about it. What Jeremiah had preached, which had grieved him to declare, what burned like a fire inside his bones, was true down to the last jot and tittle. And now these people who asked him to pray for God’s clear direction rejected that clear direction. They called Jeremiah a liar! If you’ve watched many John Wayne movies, you know them’s fightin’ words. 

When outsiders who do not share your faith see the truth of God’s Word when you will not, that’s a problem. It’s also an opportunity. It’s an opportunity to change course and to do the hard right thing. These people started down the right course by asking Jeremiah to pray, but then they chose their own course when it wasn’t something they wanted to hear. 

Guess what happened next? It did not end well. 

If God tells you something you don’t want to hear, one of you is wrong, and it’s not him. Doing hard right things today makes future decisions easier. Trusting God’s heart when we can’t trace His hand is better than trying to figure out things on our own. He’s definitely smarter, better, and faster than us. He holds all wisdom, all truth, and his deepest motivation is his perfect love for us. 

Take time to pray, make time to pray, and put into practice whatever God may say. This is always the right way. 

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I will pray, and I will do whatever God may say. 

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Our Father, you have given us your Word, the Bible, to understand your heart and mind, your will and ways. When we’re not clear on things, and we come to you in prayer, you give us the directions we need. Remind us, as often as necessary, that you don’t answer our prayers, so we can decide whether we want to do your will. Instead, you give us answers so that we will do what is right for us at that time in alignment with your purpose. Teach us to pray in faith, trusting that you know what we do not know and that your answers are part of your perfect plan unfolding in our lives. Amen.

A Note: I use the dictation app Wispr Flow to write these devotionals. This is a wonderful tool. However, it has not yet learned to use a capital G or a lowercase g when referring to God. Sometimes it gets it right. Sometimes it does not. I tell you this only because I don’t want you to think I’m psychotic. I’m confident the app will learn after repeated use. Until then, smile and know that I am not that great of a grammar and syntax failure.