Two people have told me in my lifetime that I have a hole in my heart.
I still to this day wonder what they saw in me, in my words. Was it deep sadness and grief? Both were counselors. When I read Jeremiah 30:12, I wonder: "Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing. There is no one to plead your cause...your allies have forgotten about you." They forgot about Joseph both in his demise and then again in his glory. Why cry for a pain with no cure? God promises in Jer 30:21: "I will bring you near and you will come close to Me. You will be my people and I will be your God. In a world with so many religions, so many directions, that's it---He became my God. See, the storm of the Lord, a driving wind swirling down on heads of those who oppose me. A fierce God will not stop until He fully accomplishes the purposes of His Heart. In days to come, you will understand this. Jeremiah 30:23-24. You found favor in the wilderness. "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. I will build you up again. Again! And I will remember no more and never forget you, as long as this sun above gives light and the moon and stars are fixed by night and the seas are stirred up to roar----that's how long. Forever.
Am I more serious about finding God and wanting Him more than anything else? In Jeremiah 28, Jeremiah told prophet Hananiah that God never sent him. "You've talked the country into believing a pack of lies!" You claim to be sent...I'll send you right off the face of the earth. God did. Jeremiah 29: 9 - 11 talks about a bunch of liars preaching lies and claiming God sent them. "I never sent them." God's Decree! This is God's word on the subject. "As soon as Babylon's 70 years are up, I'll show up and take care of you and bring you back home. I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out---plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on Me, when you come and pray to Me, I'll listen. When you come looking for Me, you'll find Me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." God's Decreee: "I'll turn things around for you." His definition of good is different than mine. Consciousness of sin can draw me closer to God. The nearness of God is my good not things on this earth making it a good life.
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from Me." This promise! God will never stop doing good to me. It' just not my definition of "good." He changes my heart, my definition, to His. And that's good. We were never born to be in charge of our lives. Born to worship the One Who created us. Jeremiah 32:40
PHOTO: A Grandmother's love for her first grandchild ever. God knows the plans He has for you, Ezekiel. To turn things around for you. For His Glory. You have to find Him and want Him and I pray always that you want Him more than anything else in life. I love you so much. You will never know how much.
"I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from Me." This promise! God will never stop doing good to me. It' just not my definition of "good." He changes my heart, my definition, to His. And that's good. We were never born to be in charge of our lives. Born to worship the One Who created us. Jeremiah 32:40
God answers Jeremiah's prayer. What was in that prayer that was not from a good place in Jeremiah's heart? God says: Yes, "I am the Lord, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?" The city was a provocation from the day it was built---they followed idols not a Living God. Turned their backs on God. Again and again. God is going to give the city into the hands of the king of Babylon. Yet, God will bring them back to the land, too. "I will give them one heart that they may fear me always, for their own good and for the good of their children...I will rejoice over them to do them good and will faithfully plant them with all My heart and with all My soul. Jeremiah 32:41. He brings disaster; then, He brings good. A Promise.
Beside myself reading this passage. Jeremiah buys a piece of property from jail! This piece of ground signifies hope. There is a new day coming! Houses. Fields. Vineyards. Gardens. They are coming back! And Matthew Henry wisely writes: "It is good to manage even our worldly affairs in faith; to do common business with reference to the Providence and Promise of God." I had a scary accident recently, hydroplaning my SUV across three lanes of busy interstate traffic at noon on a rainy day. I missed all the cars. Every time I tell the story, I feel that I need to reference my existence to God.
Jeremiah sighs in praise to the God he worships and adores: "Ah LORD, Thous has made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for Thee." Jeremiah 32:17. And there it is right there. A man in prison, unjustly. And I complained incessantly this year because Worker's Comp never allowed me to visit a doctor for the minor trauma I suffered on my face. Great in counsel; mighty in work; Thine Eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men. Jer 32:19. What more do I really need to lay life on His lap?
And God's beautiful response to this beautiful Jeremiah! "Call unto Me, and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things, which you know not!" Even in jail! Jer 33:3.
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