OUR DAILY BREAD 5 MAY 2024 DEVOTIONAL, SUNDAY ODB MESSAGE
Our Daily Bread 5 May 2024 Devotional, ODB TOPIC: Tears of Joy
KEY VERSE: They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back. I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son. Jeremiah 31:9 nlt
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TODAY’S ODB DEVOTIONAL INSIGHT:
Two themes dominate the Prophetic Books of the Bible—discipline and restoration. After the prophet Jeremiah warned the Israelites of God’s judgment and discipline due to their wickedness and sin (Jeremiah 1–29), he assured them that later God would also restore them (chs. 30–33). He would be their God and they would be His chosen nation once again (31:1). He would also bring them back to the promised land after the Babylonian exile (30:1-3; 31:8-9). Israel would be restored to enjoy the privileges and blessings as God’s “firstborn son” (31:9).
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 31:3-9
3 Long ago the LORD said to Israel: “I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love. With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
4 I will rebuild you, my virgin Israel. You will again be happy and dance merrily with your tambourines.
5 Again you will plant your vineyards on the mountains of Samaria and eat from your own gardens there.
6 The day will come when watchmen will shout from the hill country of Ephraim, ‘Come, let us go up to Jerusalem to worship the LORD our God.’”
7 Now this is what the LORD says: “Sing with joy for Israel. Shout for the greatest of nations! Shout out with praise and joy: ‘Save your people, O LORD, the remnant of Israel!’
8 For I will bring them from the north and from the distant corners of the earth. I will not forget the blind and lame, the expectant mothers and women in labor. A great company will return!
9 Tears of joy will stream down their faces, and I will lead them home with great care. They will walk beside quiet streams and on smooth paths where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my oldest child.
Our Daily Bread 5 May 2024 Devotional MESSAGE
Leaving home one morning, Dean found some friends waiting with balloons. His friend Josh stepped forward. “We entered your poems in a competition,” he said, before handing Dean an envelope. Inside was a card that read “First Prize,” and soon everyone was crying tears of joy. Dean’s friends had done a beautiful thing, confirming his writing talent.
Weeping for joy is a paradoxical experience. Tears are normally a response to pain, not joy; and joy is normally expressed with laughter, not tears. Italian psychologists have noted that tears of joy come at times of deep personal meaning—like when we feel deeply loved or achieve a major goal. This led them to conclude that tears of joy are pointers to the meaning of our lives.
I imagine tears of joy erupting everywhere Jesus went. How could the parents of the man born blind not weep for joy when Jesus healed him (John 9:1-9), or Mary and Martha after He raised their brother from death (11:38-44)? When God’s people are brought into a restored world, “Tears of joy will stream down their faces,” God says, “and I will lead them home with great care” (Jeremiah 31:9 nlt).
If tears of joy show us the meaning of our lives, imagine that great day to come. As tears stream down our faces, we’ll know without doubt that the meaning of life has always been to live intimately with Him.
REFLECT: When was the last time you wept for joy? What do you think the meaning of life is?
PRAY: Father God, thank You for the joy ahead for those who love You.
Our Daily Bread 5 May 2024 Devotional, Sunday ODB Message. Our Daily Bread Ministries (ODB) is a Christian organization founded by Dr. Martin De Haan in 1938. It is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with over 600 employees. It produces several devotional publications, including Our Daily Bread. our daily bread devotional for today audio our daily bread booklet.
READ MORE TOPICS: OPEN HEAVENS, OUR DAILY BREAD, IN TOUCH, SEEDS OF DESTINY, STREAMS OF JOY, JOEL OSTEEN, MOUNTAIN TOP LIFE, DCLM DAILY MANNA, UCB WORD FOR TODAY
