Jeremiah 29:10-14 For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.
God's people found themselves in captivity for their rebellion against Him. The Lord allowed them to be taken captive by the Assyrians and later by the Babylonians. Their captivity was God's chastening in order to turn their hearts back to Him. He chastened them out of His love for them, in spite of their rebellious hearts. The evidence of His love was shown in the fact that He instructed them how they should live during their time in Babylon, and how He would prosper them as they lived in obedience to His instructions. In the end, He would bring them back to their land because His ultimate goal was to give them peace, a future, and a hope. Today, God has made His people, the church, a similar promise. We who were once in captivity to sin, fear, and death, are now free in Christ Jesus. However, we still deal with the temptations, troubles, trials and tribulations of living in this world. If we are truly free in Christ, why then do we often feel like we are dealing with life's challenges alone? It is often because the only time we seek the Lord is when the bottom falls out of life. God wants to work in, and show Himself in, our lives but we are too busy chasing the things of this world or pursuing to goal WE have set for OURSELVES. God told His people that if they call upon Him, pray to Him, and search for Him with all their heart, the Lord would be found, and He would listen. Today, this truth has not changed. Far too often we treat God like He's some lucky charm or genie in a bottle that we summons whenever we think we need Him. Listen my friends, that's not how a relationship with God works. If we are truly searching for God, it begins with knowing Jesus as Savior. For those of us who know Him, we should be starting every day with God's Word and prayer, calling upon Him. It means seeking God in the everyday occurances of life. It means learning to be sensitive to the things God is doing, and allowing, in order to get our attention or guide us along the path He wants us to walk. Yet, more often than not we miss wonderful opportunities to have intimate fellowship because we were too busy seeking the things of this world and our seeking our own desires. The bottom line is this...in Christ Jesus we have salvation and freedom from oppression. While we wait for deliverance from this world and it troubles, we need to search for the Lord with all our hearts every single moment of every single day. A day is coming very soon when Jesus Himself will come to get His church to be with Him forevermore. Until then, if we are feeling like God is distant and doesn't care about what we are going through, I can guarantee that it's not because God is distant; it's more likely that it is us who have walked away and allowed the world to attract us and distract us.
Today, God extends an invitation to you to accept His free gift of salvation (Romans 6:23). Will you accept it? Anyone who calls on Jesus, by faith, in repentance, confessing your sins, will receive eternal life. Do not put off calling on Him, and receive His free gift of salvation today (Romans 10:13).
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