A Fire in My Bones

“Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah 20:9

Jeremiah had been placed in prison. He had been preaching for a long time, but the people were not heeding his message. He told them that they needed to put away their idols and serve the Lord. He warned them that destruction and defeat were coming if they did not turn back to the Lord. The more Jeremiah preached, the more it seemed that the people were determined to do wrong. Jeremiah had grown weary of preaching to people who were not listening and were not willing to change. Jeremiah decided that he was going to quit preaching. He no longer wanted to deliver God’s message to the Israelites because of their hard hearts. Days went by, and Jeremiah did not preach. He still had God’s message in his heart. He knew that destruction was coming and that the people needed to be warned. He thought every day about God’s Word. When He thought about it, his heart was stirred. He felt like there was a fire in his bones. The burning in his heart increased until he could no longer keep himself from sharing God’s message with the people around him. God’s Word is just as powerful and just as important today as it was in Jeremiah’s day. If we will spend time in His Word every day and meditate on what we have read throughout the day, we will have something in our hearts that we will have to share with others.