Here is
something we need to make sure we all agree on.
Salvation is vital. Jesus is our
Savior. He is all we need. It is all about Him. In our sphere of influence and in our daily
life we can lead others to come to know Jesus.
We are the equipment.
Armed with our
salvation and story we can win our world to Jesus. In the passage we look at today there are
some connections we can take to heart and will push us closer to Him. Listen in.
This is good stuff!
Jeremiah 29:11 NASB
For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares
the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and
not for calamity to give you a future
and a hope.
This past Sunday
I shared with our church from Jeremiah 29 about having a heart connected to God
so we can help and share with others. We
share from hope. That is the hope that
Jesus gives us.
But the problem
is we are human. Humans look at things
from a flawed view and most often see destruction, pain and that the end is
near. When God gets involved, our minds
change, our view broadens and opens the future for us.
We can either
look at things with a positive or negative view. We can either see things as drear and empty
or much better as seeing possibilities and hope. God desires to give us a future.
That future is
the view that God wants us to have. We
have no purpose when we think we have no future. We have and live with passion and purpose
when we know that God has planned our future and desires to show it to us
through time. But the choice is
ours. Either human or divine
thinking. Either death or life. Either hopeless or full of hipe.
God speaks to
the people He loves even though they are in a very difficult place. What He says brings them comfort, strength
and wisdom. For these things to sink in
what God said had to be believed. It
really is a matter of the heart. If we
are going to have the impact God wants us to have, we have to do things His
way. Our heart is the key to it all.
Proverbs 4:23 NLT
Guard your heart above all else, for it
determines the course of your life.
We cannot see
what God wants us to see or grasp what He wants us to grasp without a heart
that has bee prepared by Him. The people
of God in Jeremiah 29 were in exile.
They were slaves and far away from home.
They were uncomfortable, but God in these verses reminds them that He
has a plan. His plan says He listened to
their prayers, and that the days ahead are going to hold great things.
The same is true
for us. If we look from God’s point of
view, we will have hope and be able to see our future. I think this can be described like being on a
hike and working your way up the hillside.
When you get to the top and look over the peak, there is beauty and a
view that is incredible
God wants to
show us those incredible views. God
wants to fill us with endless hope. Take
Jeremiah 29:11 as God’s promise. Maybe
take it as a wake up call to see the future.
If we see our
future from the point of our pain and desperate current situations, we are
going to have trouble. We must realize
that our home really is in heaven, and this world and our time here is short. We are just visiting, but we can and must
make the best of it!
Ephesians 2:19 NASB
So then you are no
longer strangers and aliens, but
you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,
1 Peter 2:11 NASB
Beloved, I urge you as
aliens and strangers to abstain
from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul.
John 14:3 NASB
If I go and prepare a
place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.
We are
aliens. That doesn’t mean we are from
another planet. It does mean that our
citizenship is not here on earth. Our
citizenship is in heaven where Jesus is preparing our eternal home.
It is easy to
let life and our humanity to get in the way of living by faith. To miss what God has for us is dangerous and
wrong. That is why we must embrace our
future that God has prepared. He will
provide as we trust Him. He will show us
the best things as we trust Him.
2 Corinthians
9:10 NASB
Now He who supplies
seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your
righteousness;
Man’s view …
lots of pain. God’s view … lots of
hope. The future is your choice and
mine. To choose man’s view is to throw
out our confidence and our faith. But we
must hold tight to our faith and take a look often, very often at the future
God has provided for us.
Hebrews 4:16 NASB
Therefore let us draw
near with confidence to the
throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of
need.
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