Are you familiar with this verse? "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end." It was the basis for Sunday's sermon.
It has always bothered me when someone expounds on a verse, but not its context. Here's the context for Jer. 29:11. Nebuchadnezzar had taken captive all the elders, princes, etc. and the king of Jerusalem and his queen. Took 'em all to Babylon. God told Jeremiah to write them a letter and tell them to basically settle in - build houses, plant gardens, get married, etc. God said, pray for the peace of the city in which you find yourselves, because its peace will be your peace.
Here's the warning: Don't let your prophets tell you that God's fixin' to destroy Babylon for what it did to you. If they say that, they're false prophets. This is My Word to you: After 70 years, I will bring you back to Jerusalem. THEN He says verse 11. But that's not all. He then says, "Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart."
Heavy stuff, isn't it? There's more, but I just wanted to share what it said to me this week. I've been dealing with chronic Lyme disease for 12 years now. Recently a good Christian friend told me to claim certain Scriptures on healing, mainly "by His stripes ye are healed." [Emphasis mine.] Meaning that as Christians we should never accept illness as God's will, but should pray and believe that God wants us to be healthy.
Believe me, this has caused conflict in my heart, not just recently, but many times over the years. Do I not have enough faith? Am I lacking something essential to my Christianity? Here's the answer God gave me this week. This is not an answer for all time, just an answer for where I find myself right now. If we never suffered adversity, we would never become strong. There is too much in the Bible telling us to expect suffering, even embrace it, for me to be able to believe the health/wealth and prosperity doctrine.
I was taking advantage of a teaching moment with my son and God showed me it applied to me as well. Because we live in a wealthy nation, lacking for nothing, my children sometimes feel we are unjust when we deny them some material possession. So I was telling him that we should not follow the culture and indulge ourselves in every desire we encounter. I said, if we never disciplined ourselves, if we indulged our every want, we would be weaklings, soft and useless to God's kingdom. God said to me, "That's your answer." My suffering has made me much stronger in character. Just as a body builder lifts weights that strain his muscles, the weight I carry builds my spiritual muscles when I practice certain disciplines in the face of my adversity.
Okay, end of lesson for today. May God richly reward you as you seek Him, for He promises you WILL find Him when you seek with all your heart.
2 comments:
That is so true. Have you ever heard Joni Earickson Tada on the radio? I probably spelled that wrong. She has a short two minute thingie she does every day that is really encouraging!
Yes, I hear her frequently! She's very encouraging, isn't she? I *think* you spelled it right!
Post a Comment