Jeremiah 17:16

(Verse 16) But I am not troubled, following you as a shepherd (or not laboring, following you), and I have not desired the day of man: you know. What has come out of my lips has been right in your sight (or before your face). But to those, he says, speaking these things, I am not troubled, nor have I labored following you as a shepherd, either entering your footsteps. Nor was I satisfied with this end, but I did not desire the day of man, either a longer life, or the prosperous things of this age.

For I love those presbyters and deacons who when they have performed their mission will not allow themselves to remain absent any longer from their duties. For the prophet says, I have not been weary in following thee. And who can be weary in following Jesus, when He Himself says, Come unto Me all ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Let us therefore never cease from following Jesus, which if we do we shall never fail, for He gives strength to them that follow Him. The more nearly you approach to the Source of power the stronger you will be. Often, while we are thus following Him, the adversaries say to us, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But let us not grow weary in following Him, let us not be turned aside by meeting with this crafty question. It was said to the prophet, when he was thrown into prison, when he was cast into the pit of mire, Where is the word of the Lord? let it come now. But he followed him so much the more, and therefore attained the prize, and received the crown; for following Jesus he was not weary; for there is no weariness in Jacob, neither shall sorrow be in Israel.

The Lord has indeed made every day—not only has made but also continues to make. I mean, he makes every day as follows: he makes his sun rise on the good and the bad and sends rain on the just and the unjust. So we are not to imagine that this ordinary kind of day, which is common to good and bad alike, is meant in this place, where we heard, "This is the day that the Lord has made." What particular sort of day can it be when it says, "Let us exult and be joyful in it"? What sort, but a good one? What sort, but a very choice, lovable, desirable one, the sort about which Jeremiah said, "And I have not yearned for the day of men, you know it well"?

"Behold, they say to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come.' But I have not grown weary in following after you." Jesus says to you, "Take up your cross, and follow me," and "Leave all things, and follow me," and "Whoever will not forsake his father and his mother and follow after me is not worthy to be my disciple." If, then, you become such a one as to follow Jesus always, you will indeed follow, and however far you follow you will not grow weary; for "there shall be no toil in Jacob, nor shall trouble be seen in Israel." There is no weariness for the one who follows Jesus; the very act of following takes away the weariness. For this reason he himself says—so that we may toil no longer, having toiled before we began to follow him—"Come to me, all you who toil and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If, then, though toiling we come to him and follow him, we shall say, "But I have not grown weary in following after you." And to this it follows that we should also speak of the words "I have not desired the day of man." There is a certain day of man, and there is a certain day of God. Let each one of us desire the day of the resurrection of the saints, not that day of which it is written: "Woe to those who desire the day of the Lord; and this day is darkness and not light." Who is it that says, "And I have not desired the day of man"? The plain sense of the passage will convict us, that we have desired the day of man. Often, when we have fallen sick and have come to imagine death upon our departure, we entreat the brethren who watch over us and say: Ask for me a respite, ask that I may remain in this life. In saying these things we do not desire the holy day of God, but the day of man. […]

Let us give thanks to God, and let us ask him in his good will to be our shield and crown, that we may never depart from him and that we may follow him and declare with Jeremiah, "I was not weary of following you." To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.