Tag: God

Faith, Life, motivation

A Letter to the Exiles

Sondra

Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord.
“They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a
hope.

That’s a pretty popular scripture. If we are honest, probably all of us will
admit to hearing it or using it several times. I’ve heard or read it five times
just in the last week. It’s so popular that it’s cliché, really. We overuse it and
it loses its meaning entirely. Someone’s going through a bad time, and we
say, “God knows the plans He has for you.” We hear of someone who is
discouraged and ready to give up, and we say, “God has a plan and it’s a
good one!” Someone graduates and we tell them, “God knows what He has
planned for your future.” Someone is facing a life transition, and we say,
“God knows the plans He has for you. Plans to prosper you and not to
harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.”

That’s what we do. Empty platitudes. Used so much that it seems
thoughtless. I wonder how many of us are aware of the context in which it was written.

As I read Jeremiah 29 the other morning, I finally understood it.

Jeremiah 29 is a letter to the exiles. An exile is someone who has been
barred or banished from their home country. In this case, the children of
Israel had been deported from their home, the land that God had given
them, and taken to Babylon to live and serve the king. Not a happy time in
the life of the Israelites. One might wonder why this bad thing happened.
Who was responsible for it?

Here’s what I noticed as I read Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles.
v. 4: This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says to all
the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem: GOD DID THIS. It’s
all part of His plan. Granted, it doesn’t seem like the “good” plan of v. 11,
but it clearly says that God has exiled them to Babylon. THERE’S A
REASON THEY ARE THERE.

So what are they supposed to do while they are there? Figure out a way to
get out of there as soon as possible? No. Verse 5 says, “Build homes, and plan to stay. Plant gardens, and eat the food they produce.” PLAN TO STAY! For a while!

If they have to stay there, surely God doesn’t expect them to have a life
among the natives, right? Just lay low and wait. Right? Wrong. Verse 6 says, “Marry and have children. Then find spouses for them so that you may
have many grandchildren.” Multiply! Do not dwindle away! DO NOT DWINDLE AWAY.

There is another scripture that I love that talks about the same thing. In Exodus 1:12, in another time when the children of Israel found themselves as slaves in another country, the Bible says that “the more they ( the Egyptians) afflicted them (the Israelites), the more they grew. GOD DIDN’T EXPECT THEM TO LAY LOW AND HIDE. HE DIDN’T
WANT THEM TO BE DIMINISHED, BUT TO MULTIPLY AND GROW.

Ok, so they are expected to live there and plan to stay. But surely that’s it,
right? Nope. Verse 7 says, “And work for the peace and prosperity of the city where I sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for its welfare will determine your welfare.”
WOW. ITS WELFARE WILL DETERMINE YOUR WELFARE. God is telling
them that the future you have is tied up in the future of that city.

So what about this future anyway?

Verse 10 says, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You will be in Babylon for seventy years.
But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and
I will bring you home again.” 70 YEARS??? And then, and only then, will
God do the good things He has promised and will bring them home again.
Verse 11 says, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord. ‘They are plans
for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.'”

So what’s this mean for us? What does it mean when we’re in a discouraging situation?
Or when things seem hopeless? When we’re in a season of life that we don’t like? When
our circumstances are less than desirable?

We can remember the lessons from the letter to the exiles.

  1. There is a reason for this season.
  2. Plan to stay a while.
  3. It’s meant for growth.
  4. Your future will be determined by your success or failure in this
    season.
  5. At the appointed time, the plans God has for you will materialize.
    Life is full of disappointments. I wish I had better news for you, but I don’t.
    There are seasons. Seasons of growth, seasons of death. Times when
    you’re on the mountain, and times when you’re in the valley. And here’s
    what I have found to be true. If you fix your focus on Jesus, you will see His
    glory. If you focus your gaze on the mountain, you can’t see the
    magnificence of God in the moment.

And just a little side note, think back to the 70 years in Babylon for a
minute. That’s the span of a life. God says that after His children spend a
lifetime as exiles here on Earth, He will then do the good things He has promised and bring them home again. Home is Heaven with Him. Now
those are plans I can look forward to!

Faith

We Don’t Know What to Do

Sondra

blogThis has been on my mind the past couple weeks.

2 Chronicles 20:10, 12
10 If disaster comes upon us—sword, judgment, pestilence, or famine—we will stand before this temple and in Your presence (for Your name is in this temple), and cry out to You in our affliction, and You will hear and save.’

12 O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” (2 Chronicles 20:10, 12)

For the past couple weeks I’ve had this scripture in my head. We’re faced with something that has completely turned this world as we know it upside down. We can’t find what we need at the store. Some of us can’t go to work. Schools are closed. Churches are closed. We’re told to stay homel and social distance.

And we don’t know what to do.

Keep your eyes on God. Jehoshaphat and his people were facing a different kind of danger in this passage of 2 Chronicles, but their response should be our response. They humbled themselves, they fasted and prayed, they admitted their need for God, and then they waited on God to see what He would do.

And what God did was amazing! It’s one of my favorite stories in the Bible. God told the people to stand still and that they would not have to fight because the battle was His and not theirs. All the people had to do was praise and worship God and as they did, the enemy was destroyed. Not just destroyed, but confused so badly that the enemy attacked itself. What came to destroy Jehoshaphat and his friends, God turned around and used it to destroy itself.

Praise precedes the victory. No matter what it is that we are facing, no matter how bad the situation looks, keep praising God. He’s still God. He’s still almighty. He’s still sovereign. He’s still worthy of praise.

So in this time of uncertainty, turn off the news. Keep washing your hands and taking precautions. Stay at home, but turn off the TV and open your mouth in praise to a God who will fight for you. God, we don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on You!

~Sondra

Faith, Uncategorized

I Used To

Sondra

I’m sitting here in my favorite chair. It’s dark. Everyone is asleep. Except for the humming of my heated back massager, the house is quiet. I can’t really be this old.

But I am this old. It’s not old as in “at the end of life” old. Or “silver-haired” old. More like “mid-life” old. Not quite “over-the-hill” old, but “I can see the summit from here” old. That’s where I am. At least I don’t have any gray hair yet.

As I sit here in my favorite chair, sipping my Coke Zero, and listening to the hum, I am thinking about something that stuck out to me in Bible study tonight: Seasons. It wasn’t the point of tonight’s lesson, but it’s what I took home. At one point in the lesson, the conversation went to the fact that we are all gifted in some way. God has given us special talents and gifts to use in ministry and for His glory. Ephesians 2:10 says that we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, to do the works He had planned for us from the beginning. God created us to do certain things. All of us have different gifts, of course, but we’re to use them collectively to advance the Kingdom. Makes sense.

What struck me, however, was when the teacher of the class started asking us what we thought our gifts were. She asked the oldest one in the room first…a mighty woman of God who has lived for Him all her life. Her answer was, “Well, I used to teach, but I can’t do that anymore.” Next up was another senior citizen. Her response, “I used to bake bread, but I don’t do that anymore.” Next was another older lady who said, “I used to sing, but I don’t do that anymore.” All of these women are prayer warriors and encouragers and helpers now. Just because they can’t do what they used to do doesn’t mean they no longer do anything. It’s those three little words that hit me, though. “I used to.” Why? Because I can say those words, too. “I used to teach.” “I used to be a youth leader.” And you can say those three words, too. “I used to take care of the nursery.” “I used to clean the church.” “I used to _____________.” You fill in the blank. We all have things we used to do.

Is it wrong that we don’t do them anymore? Not necessarily, and that is what I am thinking about tonight. Life is made up of seasons. And God sometimes only calls us to a certain thing for a season. It’s not a bad thing when the season ends. It’s sometimes a hard thing when the season ends, but it’s not bad. It just means that He has other plans for you and needs to move you somewhere else.

And so I was curious and went online to do a spiritual gifts test. I hadn’t taken one in a few years, and I wanted to know if my giftings had changed. They have changed dramatically. When I was in the youth pastor season, my giftings were leadership, administration, teaching. Those gifts fall somewhere in the middle now and have been replaced by faith. Faith was one of the lowest scores I had the last time I took the test. That was before cancer. I definitely needed faith to get through that.

My point is, God equips us for the season we are in. Embrace it. God created you to be exactly where you are right now and He wants you to walk in the gifts He’s given you.