Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent

The Call of Jeremiah

⁴ Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, ^(D)I do not know how to speak, ^(E)for I am only a youth.” ⁷ But the Lord said to me,

^9 (I)Then the Lord put out his hand and ^(J)touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me,

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have ^(A)prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, ^(B)so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ^3 (C)If I give away all I have, and ^(D)if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

^4 (E)Love is patient and ^(F)kind; love ^(G)does not envy or boast; it ^(H)is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It ^(I)does not insist on its own way; it ^(J)is not irritable or resentful;^{[b] 6} it ^(K)does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but ^(L)rejoices with the truth. ^7 (M)Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ^(N)endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For ^(O)we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but ^(P)when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For ^(Q)now we see in a mirror dimly, but ^(R)then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as ^(S)I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

²¹ And he began to say to them, “Today ^(A)this Scripture ^(B)has been fulfilled in your hearing.” ²² And all spoke well of him and marveled at ^(C)the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, ^(D)“Is not this ^(E)Joseph's son?” ²³ And he said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ^(F)‘“Physician, heal yourself.” What we have heard you did ^(G)at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well.’” ²⁴ And he said, “Truly, I say to you, ^(H)no prophet is acceptable in his hometown. ²⁵ But in truth, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah, when ^(I)the heavens were shut up three years and six months, and a great famine came over all the land, ²⁶ and Elijah was sent to none of them ^(J)but only to Zarephath, in the land of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow. ²⁷ And ^(K)there were many lepers^[a] in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed, ^(L)but only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸ When they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath. ²⁹ And they rose up and ^(M)drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff. ³⁰ But ^(N)passing through their midst, he went away.