Our Courtyards

“While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him a second time: ‘This is what the LORD says, he who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it—the LORD is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’” Jeremiah 33:1-3

I love this passage as it gives me a visual as Jeremiah is being held captive. I can see him pacing back and forth in peace and resolve as he speaks out to anyone who can hear and proclaims what the LORD has taught him to believe.

Jeremiah prefaces the LORD’s message with a list of amazing works from God’s hands since the beginning of time. In essence Jeremiah was confidently saying, ‘This confinement doesn’t hold me! I am not only held by the LORD who formed and established this earth in which we live but He has given me a fresh word. The confinement of this regime is only temporary for the Creator of all things is going to show me things I do not even know exist. My God is so much bigger than any of this!’ Imagine the confusion of the guard as he watches the freedom in Jeremiah’s heart as he is imprisoned.

There lies the rub! We all move in and out of captivity throughout our entire lives. We are confined by our emotions, our circumstances or the decisions of other people much like Jeremiah. When your confinement holds you down, proclaim your testimony of past graces and faithfulness that your personal and intimate God has revealed to you through your trials. List the marvelous works of His hands in your lives. These precious hands that create, mold, and establish are the very hands that bear the scars that save, deliver and liberate! The more we can confidently remain in our courtyards no matter what holds us the more we will experience being held by the Creator.

Who holds you – your God or your confinement?