"10 "For thus says the LORD: When SEVENTY YEARS are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you MY promise and bring you back to this place.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
12 THEN you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
14 "I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU", declares the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile."
Many times in my life my focus gets so results oriented that I lose sight of my purpose. In Isaiah 43:7 scripture says "everyone who is called by my name, whom I created FOR MY GLORY...." We are created with a desire to glorify GOD, but the great deceiver constantly is trying to infiltrate our thoughts and our minds with anything other than glorifying GOD! Having GOD glorified is torment to the enemy.
The children of Israel were sent to Babylon for seventy years of exile. The Israelites declined to listen to a HOLY GOD, so HE allowed them to go where their minds would be on HIM to ease their captivity. They knew what freedom was, but they couldn't see how to get back to where they wanted to be (v10). GOD told them through Jeremiah that HE knew the plans HE had for them, but they would have to seek HIM with ALL their heart. HE didn't want a half-hearted, timid, luke-warm relationship! GOD wanted to be wanted by HIS children!
HIS promise in verse 14 is not something to be taken lightly. "I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU" is a declaration of HIS willingness to restore the relationship to where it needs to be. In John 15:4 JESUS says "Abide in ME, and I in you". If we ABIDE in HIM it should be difficult to focus on anything else. But when we start believing WE can do things for the Kingdom and begin to operate on our own strength and power, we are headed to our own Babylon. Surely captivity is not where we desire to be?
GOD has an uncanny ability to place us where "I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU"! Whether we need to have our health, jobs, wealth, or any other freedom removed from us, GOD is sovereign enough to remove what commands more of our attention than HE does. When we have been in captivity long enough to SEEK HIM WITH ALL OUR HEART, then HE promises "I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU"!
FATHER GOD, I pray I will be ever attentive to YOUR SPIRIT guiding me. Cause me to follow YOUR plan for my life and to visit with YOU continually to make sure I have not veered from that plan. My desire is to remain in a relationship with YOU. Cause me NOT to be in exile for SEVENTY YEARS waiting to hear the words "I WILL BE FOUND BY YOU"!
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