Strength for Today Devotional

 "Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay."

Jeremiah 20:9

Jeremiah was there. Paul was there. And many other saints who were called to speak up for God when a verbal or physical beating awaited those who gave testimony have also been there. It's a time when your spiritual, mental and emotional resources are so low that you give in to the temptation to say, "Lord, when I stand up for You, all I get is beat up! I'm keeping my mouth closed from here on out!" Or maybe it's not so much persecution as it is a lack of response from those we're trying to reach or just a case of plain exhaustion where we say, "I give up!"

Yet the Lord knows the power of love He has put inside us for Him, even when we think it's all leaked out. Jeremiah couldn't close down on God. Neither could Paul when he said that even if he didn't want to preach, he would still do it (I Corinthians 9:16,17). And Richard Wurmbrand, a dear saint in our time, also knew what it was to be beaten by Communists in a Rumanian cell but having God's Word flow out of him like white-hot lava from an exploding volcano.

You will also experience this awesome scripture if you truly love Jesus and are His prisoner. It might not be as one suffering persecution, but there will be times you will feel it easier to take the "fifth amendment" of silence rather than speak for the Lord when there is a cost. But that is when His Word will begin to burn in your spiritual bones and, like Jeremiah, you will love your Lord too much to be intimidated by those who wish to render you timid and silent. The power of the Holy Spirit will win out and you will declare concerning God's Word, "I am weary with enduring and holding it in; I cannot contain it longer." (Amplified version) 

My Prayer:

“Make me Your prisoner of love, Lord Jesus, so that even if I try to rule my own life, You will overrule and cause me to still be your obedient witness.”