God told Jeremiah that his cousin would come to him and ask him to redeem a piece of land. Jeremiah was instructed to buy it. What was strange about this request? Jeremiah was being held prisoner for prophesying the certain overthrow of Judah. Jeremiah did just as the Lord commanded. Why? Because he believed God would bring Israel out of captivity as He had promised. What a wonderful act of faith!

Somewhere humanity got the idea that life ought to be trouble free in spite of the Scripture telling us we will have trouble. When trouble comes, we feel we have done something wrong. We must remember God uses our trouble to strengthen us to meet more trouble. God reminds us, “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

God recognizes the man or woman who, even through doubts, will still follow God’s word. “This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it - the LORD is his name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”(Jeremiah 32:42, NIV)