““But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in the entire way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ “Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward.…“You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.” Jeremiah 7:23-24, 28 LSB https://bible.com/bible/3345/jer.7.28.LSB

God is so gentle with us, so humble, His burden is so light yet we refuse to place ourselves under His rule. His Word is so prevalent for us, the Scriptures abound, they reside on our phones if we will but open them to the resources available for receiving His word. What does the Lord ask of us? That we listen to Him, that we obey Him, that we live lives before Him that reflect His will, His character, and His wishes. And what is that, what is this awful thing the Lord commands that we refuse to do? Love one another as He Himself has loved us. Our personal worlds and the world itself would be so much happier, healthier, would we just love others like we love ourselves. Simple but not easy. Our sinful nature, so obvious if we will see ourselves through the mirror of Scripture, reveals so obviously our greed, our lust, our selfishness, our hate, our fear and so many other flaws that should drive us to God for healing, for restoration and for help to live the way we were designed by Him. When will we pick up the Scriptures as a people of God and read them then pray over them for God to work them out in our lives so that the church and then the nation reflects the goodness of God and the love of God because we do good and love one another? The simple discipline of daily Bible reading to know God and to do His will is all we need for healing our land and restoring His blessing upon our lives. God has provided all we need for knowing Him and doing His will but most of us refuse to make the time to seek His face for carrying out His will. So we suffer the consequences in our lives and in the culture of our nation. Brokenness, death, suffering all the result of ignoring our God and disobeying His commands. O that we would repent, and seek His face, let us read the Bible then pray for His will to be done and His kingdom to come in our lives and through our lives in all of our lives.