Recently during my morning devotions, I read a verse, Jeremiah 8:11, that shook me to the core. I have been using a chronological (vice canonical order) Bible for my morning devotions, and it uses the New Living Translation (NLT). Jeremiah 8:11 in the NLT struck me in a way that it never had in previous readings in other translations. In Jeremiah chapter 8, God is speaking through Jeremiah to rebuke the priests and prophets of Israel for telling the Israelites that they will experience peace and prosperity despite their wicked devotion to idols and other sinful ways. The second half of the verse is familiar to many as God is telling the priests and prophets that they are saying "Peace, Peace, when there is no peace." But the NLT's version of the first part of Jer. 8:11 is what was so compelling to me. "They offer superficial treatments for my people's mortal wounds."
Now I realize that this verse was directed at the priests and prophets of Israel and was in a much different context than my own. Still, I was figuratively knocked to the floor as I asked myself, "Am I doing everything I can as a disciple of Christ to pray, to encourage, and to provide tangible support to my brothers and sisters in Islamic strongholds who suffer unspeakable horrors for calling on the name of Jesus? Am I speaking truth to my fellow Americans about their spiritual condition? Or am I offering "superficial treatments for [His] people's mortal wounds"? Am I offering "spiritual" platitudes when more concrete actions are required? Am I in a sense doing what James condemned in James 2:15-16? "If a brother or a sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,' and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?"
These questions have haunted me for the last ten days...
