From The Land Of Peace To The Thicket Of The Jordan


by Patricia Nordman - Date: 2006-12-15 - Word Count: 399 Share This!

"If you fall down in the land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?" (Jeremiah 12:5b NAS).

It is in the quiet that we gather our forces for conflict. We don't know what a day may bring. We may be asked this very day to drink the "wine of astonishment..." (Psalm 60:3,KJV). It is the habitual living for Christ that prepares us for that "brief moment" when He seems to forsake us. But "with deep compassion I will bring you back" (Isaiah 54:7). If we have been faithful in lesser strifes then we will be upheld in the greater ones. We know of His faithfulness and love from the past, so surely He will not withhold them in a greater need.

J. Bates shares these thoughts:

"DUTIES. If in the ordinary duties of life you have been wearied, how will you be able to meet the higher and special duties to which you may be called? Manfully and courageously face these, and then you may hope to meet the others with strength equal to their performance.

"TRIALS. If the trials which are common to man tax your patience, how will you do when called to pass through extraordinary? Do not give way under these, but endure them without shrinking, then when the Job-like trials come, you may bear them as he did.

"TEMPTATIONS. If those, common to man, have taxed your strength, and led you to complain of their severity, how will you do when special and more than ordinary temptations come upon you? Resist the devil in the first temptation, and you will be better able to resist him in the second, and so on.

"TROUBLES. Do the ripples on the waters of the sea of life affect you, then how will you do when the surges of the tempest come upon you? Do the dark clouds of the sky frighten you, then how will you feel when the lurid lightning and terrible thunders fill the heavens?"

I recall how much this verse meant to me when our son died. We had reached the thicket of the Jordan, and we had not appreciated the land of peace before his death. Dear friends, please thank God for awesome blessings you have this moment! We know not what tomorrow holds. I wonder if we even recognize our land of peace. God has given us the title, so let's claim it and rejoice!


Related Tags: peace, compassion, jordan

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