The Promise of Restoration

Sometimes I read God's Word and just get completely blown away by what He says and how He loves us. There are times like now when I just can't contain myself from sharing His AWESOME Word with others. I've been reading Jeremiah lately and certain verses have popped of the page during this time. There is always Jeremiah 29:11 which is one of my favorite verses. The new covenant starting at Jeremiah 31:31 is always a good read, but today I was in Jeremiah 32 when it truly leapt of the page and came alive to me.

The book of Jeremiah goes between God saying he is going to judge and destroy Israel for their disobedience and God telling Israel that He will restore them if the they would only turn from their own ways and serve Him. Every time I read it, it breaks my heart. These are God's chosen people. He has performed miracle after miracle for them. He has love them with an everlasting love, yet Israel persists in going its own way and chasing after idols. I think the biggest reason that it breaks my heart  is that I can completely relate. No, I may not be burning incense to other gods or sacrifing my children on the alter (seeing as I don't actually have children). But that doesn't mean that I don't walk astray at times. We are to serve the Lord only and to love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:5). So when I get to caught up in my life with work or friends or family, the newest movie or TV show to watch, the latest great read, the worries of life, or just stop keeping the Father at the center of my life, I become just like Israel. I start relying on the idols in my life.

Then today I read Jeremiah 32:38-41 and I was completely blown away:  "They will be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship Me for ever, for their own good and the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship Me, and they will never leave Me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land." (NLT)

There are just so many great promises in those few verses. First, He gives His promise that He will be our God and we will be His people. This is repeated multiple times in the Bible and can start to be overlooked, but the truth is: He chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless. To be adopted as sons (Ephesians 4-5). He chose us out of the whole world to be His treasured possession (Deuteronomy 7:6). And the truth of the matter is, He didn't have to. But in His great love, the Father sent His son to reconcile us to Him that we may have a relationship with Him and live in His presence.

Second, the Father says that He will give us one heart and one purpose. This is so important because we would never be able to serve God wholly in our own strength and abilities.  I know it and God knows it. That is why God had to make a new covenant through Jesus. He saw that man in his own strength kept falling away. The NIV version says that He will give us a singleness of heart and action to fear Him. That is what I want: a singleness of heart to worship Him only!!!

He doesn't even stop there, but continues with His promises by saying that He will NEVER stop doing good us. It may not seem like it at times, but God is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28). He has a plan for us and is working out EVERYTHING in conformity with His will (Ephesians 1:11). Let me repeat that: He will NEVER stop doing good to us and is working out EVERYTHING in conformity with His will.

Then once again, He promises to put a desire in our hearts to worship Him. With this desire, we will never leave Him. Oh how my heart cries out to never leave Him again! Without Him life is empty and meaningless, but in His presenc there is fullness of joy. When we worship Him, we stay  in His presence.

Even more then His everlasting covenant to never stop doing good to us, the Father proclaims it is His joy to do good to us and He rejoices in it. Again this bears repeating: He rejoices and takes joy in doing good to us. And because of that, he will most assuredly, faithfully, and wholeheartedly plant us in the land He has chosen for us.

What a holy, awesome Father we have!

"That's All Folks!"

To Know His Love

"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom His whole family in haven and earth derives its name. I pray that out of His glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
                           -Ephesians 3:14-21

"That's All Folks!"