Your words were found and I ate them. And your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart for I am called by your name. Oh Lord, God of hosts.
– Jeremiah 15:16
I love this verse. Just listened to it one more time. This is Jeremiah speaking to God saying your words were found and I ate them. I devoured them. I digested them. Just pause and think about that in your life.
Do you digest the words of God? Do you find them and feast on them? That’s the picture here in Jeremiah, 15:16, feasting on God’s word in ways that lead to joy, your words became to me a joy. Oh, is God’s word a joy to you? I think about when my wife and I were dating and this was back before email, she would write me notes and mail them to me.
Jeremiah 15:16 Reminds Us Joy Comes from God
And the joy that I would find in opening up a letter from this girl who is sharing her thoughts and her heart with me. That’s the picture I have here, Jeremiah, 15:16. Your words became to me a joy. Do we open up God’s word like this, with joy, with eagerness, and anticipation? What is he going to say?
Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart is God’s word the delight of your heart? Oh God, maybe so, but listen to the way this verse ends. For I am called by your name, oh Lord, God of hosts. What a picture that for all who realize that the Lord God of hosts has called your name. This is the way we view the word of God.
We are Children of God
We’re his children, called by him. He has spoken to us. Just look around you in the world today at all creation and realize the God who formed creation, who spoke in creation came into being, this God has called you by name and he speaks to you through his words.
So eat them, digest them, meditate on them, memorize them, may his word be to you a joy and the delight of your heart.
Jeremiah 15:16 Leads Us to Seek the Lord
We pray for this kind of relationship to your word, that we would find your word daily and feast on your word. God, that we would find your word daily and feast on it day and night, eat it, digest it, soak it in, enjoy it, savor it.
We pray that you would wean us off of the stuff of this world that dulls our tastes for your word. I confess, even now, how prone I am to spend time scrolling through a screen or watching this or that in ways that dull my desire for your word, for that which brings true life. God, I want your word to be, to me, a joy and the delight of my heart.
Praying for the Urdu People
I pray this over every person listening right now that your words would be to us, a joy and the delight of our hearts, because we are called by your name, the Lord, God of hosts. You have spoken to us and imparted your word to us and God, even as we pray these things in our own lives, we pray this over others’ lives.
God, we pray that others would find true joy in your word in the gospel. You’d help us to share your word today toward that end God that people among the nations, all the people groups for Urdu speakers around the world for the Urdu people to find joy and delight in your word. Especially as we pray for unreached people who don’t have your word. Either don’t have your word in their language or have never heard the good news of your love in the gospel.
Praying for People to Hear the Gospel
God, we pray that they would hear your word and receive it and believe it. We pray that you would use our lives to make your word known among all the nations of the world that they might say your words were found and we ate them. And your words became to us a joy and the delight of our hearts for they are called by your name. Oh Lord, God of hosts. May it be so for them, for the nations and may it be so for us, we pray. According to your word in Jeremiah 15:16 in Jesus’s 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.
