Jeremiah, The Intercessor

I've been reading through the book of Jeremiah lately. This is the first time that I will have (hopefully) read through an entire major prophet. I'm doing my reading in The Reformation Study Bible. I've always found the major prophets to be really confusing, but I've found that it is really helpful to reference an outline to understand the themes of each section of reading. I'm really hoping the themes and meanings will be alive and real (or at least make sense) to me.

One particular thing that sticks out to me in Jeremiah is that he is always pleading for the people and begging God to turn away His wrath. He acted as an intercessor for the people, but at the same time he had to bring them really harsh and serious messages. Nobody wanted to hear him--his life was often threatened. In spite of all this and in light of people's obvious wickedness, Jeremiah still pleaded for God to turn away his wrath.

I want to be like that. I want speak God's truth--the whole truth, but at the same time have such a heart for people that I cry for them for God to save them. I find it's so difficult to attain balance in life. In my impatience and imbalance, I often want to speak the truth just one time to a person and then if they don't change, I often get angry or just give up--if I have the courage to say anything in the first place.

I want to speak the truth with a compassionate, 'slow to anger' heart. I want to fear God and not fear man. Thank God that He was (and is) compassionate and slow to anger to me!