Jeremiah

Darling asked me whether God delivered His promises from Jeremiah 29:11-14 to me.

First of all, God always delivers on His promises. The question is do we recognize them when we get them.

Sometimes the promises are conditional. We act, and God works.

Let's look at what He promised us here.

"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. 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. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

These passages are full of God's promises.

Yes, this message is written to the exiled Israelites in Babylon, as shown by Jer 29:10: 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."

Like so much of the Bible, though, God's word is given to His people at the time and reflected to His people throughout time. That's us.

So God has plans to prosper me, not harm me. Honestly, there were many times in my life when I felt God punished me - and hard. Two divorces, essentially the loss of my three children, the distance from my family, the loss of my baby brother... All these things hurt and I struggled.

Yet God gave me a hope and a future, and I am happier in my life now than ever before (much of it due to Darling). God did prosper me. Sixteen years ago I was financially destroyed from my second divorce, and had no hope for financial freedom, but God gave me that as well.

For decades now I sought God with all my heart. Not constantly - I'm not that good, but consistently, like the ebb and flow of the tides on the beach. God knows my weaknesses better than I, and I keep coming back. I do seek Him with all my heart. And I found Him!

Look, I'm not perfect, and I never will be, but God is. More than that, God is always faithful.

If you seek Him, you will find Him. That's a promise.

Don't you want to find God?

Thanks for reading.