Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says:
“I remember regarding you the devotion of your youth,
Your love when you were a bride,
Your following after Me in the wilderness,
Through a land not sown.
Jeremiah 2:1-3

The Lord calls on Jeremiah to send a message to the people of Israel. He warns their early love for Jesus has gone cold, and nobody, even the priests, looks for the Lord anymore. The Lord looks back fondly at the time Israel followed the Lord in the wilderness. God describes the relationship between the Lord and Israel as the “devotion of your youth” and “your love as a bride.” But as time passed, the fathers and fathers of those who wandered the wilderness forgot about God. Even the so-called holier ones no longer looked to God. “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ And those who handle the Law did not know Me.” There’s a great lesson to be learned here.

God wants us to have the mindset and faith of those who followed Him in the wilderness. We might live in the modern world, but our mindset must be with those who followed the Lord in the wilderness. They encountered deserts and pits, droughts, and deep darkness. They crossed a land no one crossed and where no person lived. They faced insurmountable obstacles, death, and incredible challenges. Where did they turn? God says, “I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things.” God provided everything they needed.

To get back to this wilderness relationship with God, we must possess two things: the devotion of youth and the love of a bride. Do you remember your childhood friends when the day wasn’t long enough to play and talk? You shared everything. You talked about everything. You created a bond and a friendship that would last a lifetime. God wants that kind of connection, that kind of affection!

And God wants the love of a bride. Do you remember your first love? Do you remember the honeymoon phase of your marriage? You loved each other, and you depended on each other. You were ready to spend your life together and give this person everything. God wants our relationship with Him to be this blissful, where your partner is perfect and can do no wrong. That’s what God wants!

Think about your relationship with God. Is it one filled with youthful devotion and the love of a bride? Do you look to God for everything, or has He become an afterthought? We need a relationship realignment. When we face obstacles, we look to solve them ourselves. Like priests and fathers, we’ve forgotten about God and don’t even look for Him. When we meet pits and valleys, darkness and shadows, we don’t look to God because we lack youthful devotion and the love of a bride. We need to get this back.

Whatever you’re facing in life, if you have these two things, like God feeding and clothing the people of Israel in the wilderness, God will take care of you! When God is like that friend in youth you bonded with in a profound manner or the love of your life you’re willing to die for, we become like the people of Israel who had no worries because God took care of everything. We’re not in the wilderness. We have families, homes, and jobs. But there is still a wilderness in which we can live; it’s the wilderness where we are filled with youthful devotion and love of a bride.

So remember these two things: youthful devotion and a bride’s love. Remember and recreate those feelings and incorporate them into your relationship with God. When possessing youthful devotion and a bride’s love, the underlying truth is that God is enough. He is all that you need! You can walk through the valley of death and wouldn’t flinch. Why? God is the One and Everything! People filled with youthful devotion and a bride’s love turn away from agony and desperation. They look only to God and know He is the answer to everything.

Click for Korean sermon https://soundcloud.com/yhpaik/1980-10-15-full