August 28, 2026 Devo

Several years ago, I visited a man in the hospital. He was the father of a man who was a friend of mine who had started attending our church. When I told my friend that I was going to stop by and see him, he was both happy and concerned. He said, “I’ll be honest, Steve. I’m not sure how he’ll respond to a pastor visiting him. He’s a pretty rough old cuss.” Convinced of my ability to be irresistibly charming, I decided to go ahead and visit the man. It was awkward to say the least.
The man looked surprised when I came into the room. He didn’t know who I was, and my guess was he hadn’t had any visitors at all. When I told him I was a friend of his son, he simply nodded. When I told him I was a pastor, he frowned. I told him I’d heard that he had heart surgery and wanted to check in and see how he was doing. His responses were short, harsh, and to the point. When I got ready to leave, I asked him if it would be okay if I prayed for him. He shook his head and gave me a very stern “No!” I smiled, said goodbye, and walked out.
As I headed to my car, I realized I suddenly understood my friend a lot better. My friend struggled with his drinking. He’d made a lot of poor choices in his life, and his marriage was in trouble. He didn’t know how to be a good husband. He didn’t know how to be a good father. He struggled with his own self-esteem. And all of these were the result of his father. His father’s sins were being paid for in his life. Sin doesn’t just hurt the person who sins. It has implications and an impact on the next generation.
Jeremiah points this out in our passage today. It was the generations who had gone before him that abandoned God and went their own way, serving other gods. But it was now Jeremiah and his generation who were suffering the results of that sin. And the cascading effects were devastating.
My guess is that some of you can relate to this. You’ve come from families where you are still dealing with the scar tissue of their sins and failures. You’ve battled addictions, attitudes, habits, destructive behaviors, and relational problems because of the way their sins have affected you. But you’re not alone, and you’re not hopeless. God worked in Jeremiah’s generation, even in the midst of the chaos and pain. Yes, they were impacted, but because they came back to God, they found healing and restoration. The same is true with my friend. Yes, he struggled. But he also surrendered his life to Christ and found much of the peace that his father never knew. Don’t make the wayward ways of previous generations YOUR ways. Let Christ help you break the chains and break the cycle. Let the Lord do a healing work in you. It’ll be the greatest gift you could ever give to those who come after you. Do it for you. And do it for THEM. That’s God’s Word for you today.