And now here’s the money line:

You surely are to me like a deceitful brook, waters that cannot be trusted.

Jeremiah’s faith is about expended. The world has ground him down so far that he’s no longer sure there’s a way up. He can neither see nor sense God any longer, all he feels is intense pain. In his frustration he concludes that God has not kept His promises to him.

How very human. I tell you the truth. Every single Christian that I know well enough to be honest about such things, who has been in the Lord for any appreciable amount of time, has experienced this low point in their walk. This is the place where it all looks hopeless. Where refused worldly opportunities in order to be faithful to God is now regretted. Where there’s no fruit and there appears to be no way forward to more fertile ground. Where for all the world it appears that God has been unfaithful.

Depending on the difficulty of your call, and what circumstances you must overcome in order to fulfill it, you may well experience the kind of pain and disillusionment that Jeremiah feels here. And generally, the greater the call, the greater the opposition. You may have escaped this test thus far, but don’t allow that to lull you into thinking you’re out of danger. As we go through the sanctification process of stripping succeeding onion-layers of carnality off, we can get snagged at any time, and the devil’s favorite time is when we least expect it.

So how did God react to Jeremiah’s failure of perspective? Did He nuke him? Or did He comfort him with motherly love?

Therefore so says the LORD, If you turn back, then I will bring you again; you shall stand before Me. And if you take the precious from the worthless, you shall be as My mouth. Let them turn back to you, but do not return to them.

And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not overcome you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says the LORD.

And I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the evil ones. – Jer 15:19-21

It seems God chose neither rebuke or mercy. Instead, God completely overlooks the failing, and offers Jeremiah a practical path back to wholeness and usefulness. It’s a question of regaining discernment. Jeremiah has to take control of his mind again, and separate godly truth from the self-focused emotions he’s been wallowing in.

If he does that, God still has reserved his place for him. But there’s a strong warning here: do NOT alleviate your pain by trying to fit back into the world. There is only death there, and you can’t fit in.

And then God’s promise is reinstated. He will strengthen Jeremiah, so that no one will be able to prevail against him. God will remain with him – He always was, it was Jeremiah who had moved – and will deliver him from all evil. For assurance, God repeats the promise.

That may not seem like an particularly merciful word to a person who is lonely and hurting, but I assure you that it is the most merciful word possible. It is not drenched in maudlin emotion, and it may seem businesslike, but it is the word of truth that is actually able to get Jeremiah moving again in the direction he needs to be going. After all, which is better, to drown in syrupy self-centered counsel that takes you nowhere, or to receive clean godly counsel that has the power to set you free?

I mentioned earlier that I wanted this article to be a catharsis for me regarding this very issue. I come from a very strained family situation, and I carried intense pain regarding it for very many years. The most important functional characteristic of that pain was that it placed the focus on me rather than on the Lord. And there is no life in that. It has only been in the past ten years or so, when I began to consciously dedicate my thought life back to the Lord, that I’ve progressively seen victory. The more truth I’ve been able to accept, the more free and empowered I’ve become.

At root, the question is this: who are you going to live for? If your focus is self, you are going to be swamped by every distracting circumstance and emotion possible, as the natural order tries to dissuade you from God’s call. But if you make the ironclad determination that, no matter what, God is worthy of all honor, and you will obey the light given, then nothing will turn you back. You may be buffeted, but you will come through.

The key to having the power to overcome is humbly reverencing God, as I wrote here a week ago.

Then Moses said to Aaron, It is that which the LORD spoke, saying, I will be sanctified in them that come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.  – Lev 10:3

We all will experience down times as did Jeremiah, but we don’t have to live there. We can choose to overcome. If you ascribe to the Lord holiness, goodness, faithfulness, and sovereign ability, He will be your guard and guide, and He will imbue you with His power to overcome anything placed against you. Like Jeremiah, you will get up out of your pit, and you will live the victorious life.