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Good Tuesday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
How far out into your future do you like to plan? Six months, a year, 5 years? How easily do you change your plans when facing a challenge? How do you suppose God plans for what He’d like to accomplish here on planet earth?
Let’s rejoin Jeremiah the Jewish prophet again, about the year 590bc as he is receiving a shocking message from God for the people of Israel, most all of whom were in exile living in many different conquering nations. It’s a message you and I have probably applied to ourselves. You’ll remember Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem, but Ezekiel and more than 10,000 Jewish captives had been marched by King Nebuchadnezzar’s army from Jerusalem to Babylon in 597bc.
While that’s a significant number, in truth they were only a small percentage of all the Israelites who’d been conquered and dispersed over many decades of warfare in that region. So, while Jeremiah’s message was initially for those in Babylon, God intended it to spread to other places far and wide where generations of Jewish captives had been resettled.
Jeremiah is writing as he hears the Holy Spirit guiding him, and I suspect you’ve heard some of these words before: “This is what the LORD says: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill My good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the PLANS I have for you’, declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.“ (Jeremiah 29:10,11) Does that sound familiar?
For Jeremiah who wrote these words, and Ezekiel who eventually received the scroll when it was brought to Babylon, and the thousands of Jewish exiles to whom God sent this message, I doubt we can begin to imagine how exciting, how inspiring, how hopeful these words were! God had a plan! God’s plans were NOT for more judgment but for restoration and prosperity! God’s plan was very clear… God Himself would bring the exiles back to Jerusalem, in the not-too-distant future.
But we must pause here, my friends, and ask an important question: this Jeremiah 29:11 promise of God has been taken out of the context of 590bc and the Jewish exiles in Babylon and personalized by hundreds of millions of people, all around our world, in every generation for centuries. Is that fair? Does God have a plan and purpose for EVERY person? Are God’s plans helpful and good ones, not harmful, judgmental plans? I wonder how you’ve wrestled with that question as you’ve applied Jeremiah 29:11 to your life, especially in difficult times?
Yes, Psalm 139 and many other Scriptures tell us God intimately knows each person from the time of their conception till their death, and yes God can see their entire life story before they live it. (Ps. 139:13-16) And we know God is intrinsically holy, loving, good and God takes no delight in our suffering in the consequences of our sinful lives, or our sin filled world. (Ez. 33:10,11) And yes, all through Biblical history we can easily see God’s direct involvement in the life stories of many, many people.
Those true stories show us God’s desire to help them live God’s good plan and God’s purpose for their life, just as God had a wonderful purpose and plan for His chosen people Israel. But the problem is, we all face the same challenge, don’t we? Just like the Israelites, we want to be in control of our life journey. We want to define our identity, we want to build our legacy, we want to pursue our agenda and life goals. And we want God to bless all that, with great success, don’t we? And that’s why I’m leading you through the Bible in “Walking with Jesus”… to learn the important life lessons God has for all of us in seeking, discerning and living God’s purpose for each of us!
Now let’s look closely as Jeremiah kept writing as the Holy Spirit continued to guide him: “Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Then I will be found by you’, declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back from captivity…” (Jeremiah 9:12-14) I wonder if Jeremiah paused right here, put down his stylus and got down on his knees to praise God?
What did this great message from God mean? For 2600 years people have been asking the same question. Was Jeremiah 29:11-14 a message God intended ONLY and exclusively for the Jewish captives of Jeremiah’s day, or is it a general promise from God to all people, of all time who are seeking God? What about you and me in 2025 no matter where we live in this world?
I believe the Biblical story of God and His purpose for every human being in every generation is Jeremiah 29:11-13. We are born into and live our lives in captivity to our sin nature and the dark kingdom. God invites us to seek Him and God promises that when any person seeks God with all their heart, He will draw us to Himself and will rescue us from our sin captivity by the power, the person and the atonement work of Jesus Christ, God the Son!
As our relationship with God personalizes and grows it is then God leads us to discern HIS purpose for our life and enables, empowers us to live that God designed purpose, by the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. It’s the miraculous Gospel of Jesus Christ, isn’t it my friends?
That’s what Paul meant when he wrote these words to the Colossian Christians: “…we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people – the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have heard in the true message of the Gospel that has come to you. In the same way this gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world – just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.” (Col. 1:4-6)
Do you see that the spiritual part of Jeremiah’s message was the key! This wasn’t about Israel once again becoming a very powerful nation and fighting their way out of captivity or building a mighty army and dominating the world. This miraculous work of God would be a heart work, a revival in the hearts of thousands of Jews hungering for a return to God’s purpose for them… a people of God living under the watch care and blessing of the God of Israel, for all the world to see!
So, the question for you and me today is obvious: what’s the deep desire of your heart for your life? Your plans, your fame or God’s great glory and the accomplishment of God’s purposes in and through your life?
Oh my, this is very important life stuff isn’t it and we need to ponder deeply as we worship with this song. I wonder what God wants to say to you about HIS purposes and plans for your life. Are you seeking to know God and His plan for you? Let’s worship…
Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 29:11-14.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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