For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. - Jeremiah 29:11
These are fabulous words.
The bit we often miss
Now look at the promises in the next verses:
"Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the LORD, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
- Jeremiah 29:12-14
“Yay Lord!” I hear us all cry. Verses 11-14 are just the tonic we need. But did you see verse 10 - it’s going to take a while to happen.
This is what the LORD says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place."
What should we do while we wait?
What are we meant to do for those 70 years?! The answer is to be found in verses 4 to 9
"This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.
Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.
Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”
Bottomline: Enjoy your life that HE has given you. But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
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