Even the stones will cry out

Silence? No Chance !!

Like many people, I scan the social media for verses of scripture to ’check out’. Many people, including me, post what I guess we regard as inspirational or encouraging quotes from God’s Word. Now I don’t know about anyone else, but just occasionally, a verse leaps from the page or screen and slaps me in the face like a wet fish. “Why haven’t I seen that before?” is a frequent cry as God speaks to me through an often familiar, or appropriate verse.

A recent morning’s verse was of the appropriate kind, and I confess, I didn’t remember seeing it previously although I must have read it a few times. It is from Jeremiah 20:9 (NKJV) ”Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire. Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”

Like fire in my heart and I could not hold it back.

God’s Word is like that for all of us isn’t it? One day we read it and we get little or nothing. Then, when we are least expecting it, it is presented before us and ‘burns like fire’ in our hearts, and we cannot ‘hold it back’.

We have to speak it out.

I am so grateful that His Word burns in my heart. I am so glad that I cannot hold it back. I am so glad I have to speak it out. Jeremiah’s words addressed his own personal feelings as a prophet. They also address my and many other people’s feelings when given a prophetic word – I have to speak it out lest it ‘burn right through my heart and my bones.’

As the Word says, “But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.”

Don’t hold it back – speak it out. That is why God gives us words – for us to speak them out prophetically.