Mood Swings

“Sing to the Lord!

    Give praise to the Lord!

He rescues the life of the needy

    from the hands of the wicked.

Cursed be the day I was born!

    May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!

Cursed be the man who brought my father the news,

    who made him very glad, saying,

    “A child is born to you—a son!”

Jeremiah 20:13-15

In Jeremiah Chapter 20 we can almost hear the mixed emotions in the prophet as he prays.

Verses 7-10 speak of discouragement followed by verses 11-13 which voice the greatness of God then back to the last verses of the chapter where Jeremiah regrets ever being born.

And you thought you had mood swings!

The scriptures are faithful of telling the stories of men and women of God warts and all.

They are often heroes one moment and cowards or failures the next.

They do not present only the ‘halo’ side of people.

The stories are real and the people are real.

There are certainly days when you may think your halo was knocked off when you grew the horns!

We can readily identify with people like Jeremiah because he is ‘people like us’.

We recognize in the ‘heroes’ of scripture our own failures and shortcomings.

Have you ever taken the time to express your gratitude to God for not presenting a picture of people who are always and only perfect?

He alone is the perfect one.

We all fall short.

Thank God for His wonderful mercy displayed in their lives and ours!