RTW 2022

Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for these people anymore.“
Jeremiah 14:11

Twice now God told Jeremiah not to pray for the people.

Jeremiah prayed anyway. He couldn’t help it.

• One who loves another can’t help but pray.
• One who prays regularly can’t help but pray.
• One who loves God, can’t help but pray.

Shared a song below, Pray Anyway

• “In spite of it, Jeremiah continued to plead for the people, and that Jehovah permitted him to do so, patiently arguing with him.” – G. Campbell Morgan
  
  I wonder how God feels toward Jeremiah at this point. Moved by his devotion to the people of Judah, or disappointed because he disobeyed.

• “What is Jeremiah to do in such a case as this? He is told that he must not pray for the people, and God seems determined to smite them. What can love do when even the gates of prayer are ordered to be closed? Notice how, after he is told that he must not pray, he edges his way up towards the throne of grace and, at last, he does what he is told not to do.” – Charles Spurgeon
  
  I wonder, should we pray, as Jeremiah did in Jeremiah 14:19-22, for repentance and redemption of the person and or situation, rather than relief from the consequence of their sin.

• “Now he is getting actually to praying; he cannot help himself. He is told that he must not pray, but he feels that he must; he loves the people so much that he must plead for them.” – Charles Spurgeon
  
  Who do I love so much that I can’t not (pardon the double negative) pray for them? Who or what situation means so much to me that I would argue with God concerning?

Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy? You have planted them, and they have taken root and prospered. Your name is on their lips, but you are far from their hearts.
Jeremiah 12:1b-2

I want to know the answer to this also. I’m glad Jeremiah asked and I love the response from EnduringWord.

“The people Jeremiah had in mind were those who made an outward profession of religion but did not really care about God and the things of God.” – David Guzik

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Pray anyway… and be honest with God about it all.