Then they said to Jeremiah, may the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us. If we do not act according to all the word, which the Lord your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we are sending you. That it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.
– Jeremiah 42:5–6
Those verses sound good. This is a group of leaders coming to Jeremiah saying, “What do we do now? Pray for us, for God to direct us and lead us and guide us. So you go to the Lord, Jeremiah, you hear his Word and tell us what to do and we’ll do it.” But the problem was they didn’t mean it.
Jeremiah 42:5–6 challenges us to surrender our plans to the Lord.
They were really only looking for God’s approval of the plans they had already made. And they didn’t want God’s will. They wanted God’s approval of their will. Have you ever been tempted to want the same, to come up with plans for your life and to ask God to bless them instead of saying, “God, I want to follow your plan for my life, no matter what that is. And if it’s totally different than what I have planned, then I want that instead of my plans.”
Beware the temptation in our lives to come up with plans and ask for God’s approval of them instead of yielding our plans to whatever God deems best for our lives. Let’s pray. Oh God, not our will but yours be done. We pray that that prayer from Jesus and the Garden of Gethsemane, his submission and surrender to your will. We pray that that would be true, wholly true in our lives with our plans.
God forgive us. We pray for the times when we have sought you only for approval of our plans instead of surrendering our hearts, and lives to you and your plans no matter what. That means, God, to read these leaders saying, “Whether it’s good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God.” And one chapter later to hear them doing the exact opposite of what you say.
Jeremiah 42:5–6 challenges us to discern the will of God.
God, we see in them a picture of our own hearts, our own tendency to do the same. And we pray that you would protect us from ourselves, that you would keep us, save us from ourselves. Help us. We pray to truly discern your will according to your Word God, knowing that we don’t have to walk around in confusion about what your will is for our lives, that you’ve shown us in your word, how to live.
Help us to surrender to your will in your Word, to obey your Word today, to be in your Word today. And we pray that your Spirit would direct our plans in every way. Please, oh God, we want to follow your Spirit and your Word, not ourselves. Keep us, save us from ourselves. We pray. Help us to obey your plan. Help us to be holy as you are holy. That’s your plan. Help us to abide in you and your words abiding in us, knowing that’s your plan. Lord, help us to love our neighbors as ourselves, knowing that’s your plan. Help us to make disciples of the nations knowing that is your plan.
Prayer for the Jofra Berber People
God, we surrender our lives. Use us however you desire to use us, to make disciples of the nations right around us, far from us. God, we pray in obedience to that plan right now for the Jofra Berber people of Libya, this small Muslim people group of 34,000, not small in your eyes, God. We pray that the gospel would spread to them. We know your plan is for the gospel to spread to them and all the peoples of the world. So we pray. Use our lives toward that end to accomplish your plans, to accomplish your purposes in our lives today, and our families today, and the communities where we live and in the world around us. Help us to obey your plans. We pray in Jesus’ name according to Jeremiah 42:5–6. Help us to obey your voice truly in our lives. In Jesus name, amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
