In Jeremiah’s time period there were a lot of people who claimed to be speaking for the Lord. They were claiming everything was good, but the Lord was saying just the opposite. In our world, it’s a little bit like reading social media; everyone claims they are right. So how do we figure out who is telling the truth? We have one huge advantage. We can read scripture for ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of things that don’t make sense to me right away when I read them. However, one thing scripture makes clear is that we should test the spirits (I John 4 v1). The rest of the verse explains that only those who confess that Jesus has come in the flesh are from God. So again, we go to the Word of God. Are the things you are told in the Bible either directly there or by idea? Is the thought consistent throughout scripture? We can pull a verse out of context and make it appear that God hates someone when that is not HIM. So besides finding the idea in scripture, we have to make sure that it is consistent with scripture. There are an amazing number of things that we assign to God that were never HIM. The most famous is the expression, “God helps those who help themselves.” Don’t bother looking it up…. you won’t find it in the Bible. We actually see that the Lord helps those who trust in HIM, not themselves. Certainly, God does want us to do more than lay on the couch and say, “help me, Lord” and then continue to lay there until something happens. Our job is to rely on Him and live our life in faith. When someone promises that the life of a Christian will always be great and wonderful if they truly believe, we better ask them what they mean. Are we blessed no matter our circumstances? YES. Are we blessed in the midst of our storms? YES. If someone claims that means no bad circumstances or storms, then they haven’t spent much time in the Word. But we will only know that if we are spending time in the Word.