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Day 218, or August 6. Why don't you listen? Our thoughts today are rooted in Jeremiah

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chapter 25, verse 7.

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"'But you did not listen to me,' declares the LORD, "'and you have aroused my anger

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with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.'"

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Now the big picture surrounding this verse. Jeremiah's sermons come to an end about

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halfway through his long book. God gives him much to tell the people of Judah, as exile

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into a foreign land looms large. There are some things specifically for Jeremiah, too,

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but they are not all easy. He also speaks out against false prophets who are undermining

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his own valuable ministry—prophets who are not speaking on behalf of God, but who insist

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that they are. He also confirms how long Judah will be in exile in Babylonia. It will be

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a total of seventy years, and the prophet Daniel specifically quotes this prophecy

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of Jeremiah during the exile.

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And now today's action step. Did you hear about the man who told his friend,

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"'My wife tells me that I don't listen to her. At least, I think that's what she

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said.' Listening to another human being is easier than listening to God, so we have

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to try that bit harder if we are not to miss out on what the living God has to tell us.

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In my experience, it is rarely an audible voice that we hear. At least, that's the

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case for me. God tends to speak when I read the Bible, when I'm in church or house group,

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or when I am quiet and doing my best to tune into Him. Of course, there are times when

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He simply bursts into my life, but they are exceptions rather than the rule. So it's

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simple, really. If we try to hear God at specific times by reading His Word and gathering with

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His people, then there is a good chance that we will. Of course, we can keep ourselves

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cocooned with other peripheral things that drown Him out, but if we do, we risk not hearing

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His voice that will enrich our lives far more than anything else we can spend valuable time

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on.