The Belt

This morning I found myself in the 13th chapter of Jeremiah.  And what I read, has stuck with me most of the day.

In this passage God tells Jeremiah to go out and purchase a brand new linen belt.  Though that may not sound like much by today's standards, it was an extravagant purchase in 600BC. And just when I was beginning to wonder why God never asks me to make extravagant clothing purchases for myself, I read the next verse.  What God asked Jeremiah to do with it next was simply ridiculous.  

God tells Jeremiah to take the new, extravagant belt he just purchased, just tied around his waist, a belt that has never been soiled, touched water or anything and hide it in the crevice of the rocks.  What??  Why??

A few days later God tells Jeremiah to retrieve the belt but it's too late.  After just a few days buried under rocks the belt was ruined.  Completely useless.  This amazing extravagant, beautiful thing was worthless.  

Then God compares the belt to his love.  Like a belt, his love binds us to Him.  It holds us close to Him.  But when we bury that love under the rocks, when we chose not to use it, not to trust in it, not to let it do what it was made to do, it becomes useless to us.

God loves you.  He loves you desperately.  And he wants to be bound close to you and for you to be bound close to him by the belt of his love.  He wants you to be bound to his word, to his truth, to his plans for you.  But sometimes rather than stay close to him, we loosen the belt, then it can't do what it is supposed to do, it doesn't hold us as close as we need to be.  Sometimes we even take the belt completely off, we bury it in the back of our closet with those shoes we never wear and we forget about it.  But it is useless there.  In the back of our closet where we can't see it or reach it.  It doesn't do us any good back there.  

Unlike the linen belt though, God's love will never get ruined.  If you have stuffed it back there in your messy closet, I urge you to pull it out, dust it off, and put it on, as tight as you can get it.  It is just as strong as the day you first got it.  It will never wear out, never give from too much strain.  It will always fit your perfectly.  It's a belt made just for you.