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Jeremiah 32:16-25, Jeremiah Prays for Understanding

Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today

Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, ‘Buy the field for money and get witnesses’—though the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans.
— Jeremiah 32:17, 25

NL Daily Devotion for Monday, July 14, 2025

by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff


More hope amid hopelessness. God tells Jeremiah to buy a field in a land that will soon be overrun by foreign invaders. Why on earth would God do that unless ultimately the field would remain in Jeremiah’s hands? And for that to be the case, it would mean that eventually the Chaldeans would leave, the city would be rebuilt, and Jeremiah would get his property back.

Are we called to do the same thing? Are there places or things we have wanted to invest time and energy into but we ask ourselves “what’s the point” in light of some current challenge or setback? Might we have more faith that God will take our meager efforts, our attempt at hope and optimism, and deliver results beyond our wildest dreams?

This is going to seem like a silly, petty example, I’m sure, but at one point in my life, I stopped writing creatively. I decided there was no way I was ever going to get published in any traditional manner, and I didn’t want to “waste” any more time pouring my heart and soul into things that no one would care about. But eventually, my attitude and outlook shifted. I started writing again for my son, rather than to fit into any “marketable” (ick) strategy. The creativity in me was unleashed. And now creativity is the center of my daily life, rather than some “if I get around to it” thing. I invest a great deal into things that may never pay off in any conventional sense. And it feels absolutely right. It’s the act of creativity itself that is the point. Will it someday be more? Who knows. Is something I’m willing to invest time into now, because it feels like God is calling me to do so, become potentially valuable to the world in some concrete way? I hope so. I made the decision to buy the field, as it were, and the rest is up to God.

What do I feel called to invest time and energy into but don’t out of fear?