Jeremiah 39:1-14: Remaining Among the People
Monday, November 10, 2025
Yesterday’s Gospel reminded us of something we may want to carry with us everywhere and it is this: When we are fearful of something we must do we are likely relying on ourselves too much. And we are likely forgetting to rely on God. Jesus tells his disciples in Luke 12:8-12 that we need not worry about our circumstances – even when they are dire – if we remain in him, in God. When we allow the Spirit to direct us, we cannot fail. When they take you before synagogues and before rulers and authorities, do not worry about how or what your defense will be or about what you are to say. For the Holy Spirit will teach you at the moment what you should say. Jesus may be remembering the words from Isaiah 30:21: From behind, a voice will sound in your ears: “This is the way; walk in it,” when you would turn to the right or to the left. Both the Old and New Testament remind us that when we live in the Spirit, we cannot falter. When we remain with God’s people, we will not go wrong. When we follow Christ, we may suffer but we will never be lost.
We are often reminded to witness, watch and wait on the Lord and so we pray from Psalm 5 in today’s MAGNIFICAT Morning Prayer: It is you whom I invoke, O Lord. In the morning you hear me; in the morning I offer you my prayer, watching and waiting. You are no God who loves evil; no sinner is your guest. The boastful shall not stand their ground before your face. But I through the greatness of your love have access to your house. I bow down before your holy temple, filled with awe. All those you protect shall be glad and ring out their joy. You shelter them; in you they rejoice, those who knew your name. It is you who bless the just one, Lord: you surround the just one as with a shield.
I asked my friend to see herself as a shepherd who gathers lambs to bring them into the fold at night. I asked that she put all her worry into prayer. And I asked that she rely on God to bring goodness out of harm.
In the end, Jesus reminds us, God is all there is. In the end, we do not want to wait on anyone or anything else. In the end, all that is asked of us is that we witness, watch and wait. Rather than succumb to the familiar fears that govern us poorly and use us badly, we will want to remember to gather ourselves and to gather lost sheep even as we remain among God’s people. For it is in, and of and through Christ that we are saved and brought back to God. It is in, and of and through the Spirit that we are consoled. And it is in, and of and through God that we are made whole. And in the end – when we can manage to remain with God’s people – we remember well that . . . God is all there is.
Cameron, Peter John. “Prayer for the Morning.” MAGNIFICAT. 16.10 (2011): 239. Print.
A re-post from October 16, 2011.
Image from: https://www.umcnic.org/news/bishops-column-shepherding-on-the-edge
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