“For as the loincloth clings to the waste of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.”
– Jeremiah 13:11
Wow, what imagery this picture of clothes on a person, clothes clinging to the waist of a person. God says, “I have made my people to cling to me.” That’s the language to cling to God you were made to cling to God.
This is where life is found, in clinging to God, that you might be his people, his son or daughter, to make that even more focused on you individually, but then us together clinging to God as his people, a name, a praise and a glory, like this is where life is found for you and me today in clinging to God. You can think of other imagery of just one thing clinging to another, so attached to it that it cannot be separated from it, holding onto it.
Does This Describe Your Relationship with God?
Does this describe your relationship with God? Do you cling to God day in and day out and all day long? Oh, I want to encourage you. If you are walking through trials, cling to God today, cling to him, hold fast to him. As you face temptation today, cling to him, may your mind and affections and desires and attention be attuned totally to him, that you might walk in his spirit as you cling to his spirit today.
As you make decisions, may you cling to God for wisdom, as you feel weak, may you cling to God for strength. Oh, what a picture of the Christian life, clinging to God. May it be so, oh God, in our lives today, may we cling to you all day long today. May we be for you a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. And even as we read here in Jeremiah 13:11, you saying, this is what You created your people to do, but they would not listen.
Jeremiah 13:11 Helps Us to Hear God’s Word
God, help us to listen, help us to hear your word today, and to cling to you, to cling to your word, to cling to your spirit in every facet of our lives. God, amidst challenges we are walking through in our lives, we cling to you. We need you. We need your help, we need your strength, we need your guidance. And not just in the middle of challenges, the middle of temptations that we will face today. God, help us to cling to you. Help us not to loosen in any way our grip on you and your word.
God, help us to cling to you when we are tempted to sin today. We pray that amidst our weakness, we would cling to you for strength. God, amidst our struggles, we would cling to you for peace. Amidst our confusion, we would cling to you for wisdom. God, that in everything we do today, it would be said that we were clinging to you, and that we were for you, a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. As your children listening to you and glorifying you as we cling to you, may that be true of our lives today. According to your word, we pray this in Jeremiah 13:11. 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.
