Message to the Exiles...

Are you familiar with Jeremiah 29:11? "'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 is a hopeful verse of promise that many of us have held onto at some point in our lives. What you may not be familiar with is the fact that the context of this great promise is an extended time of exile--a time of great loss for God's chosen people. For a period of about twenty years, the Jewish people were successively exiled into Babylon. This captivity ultimately lasted for seventy long years. Jeremiah's promise occurs in the early days of this Babylonian exile.

Have you ever been exiled? I don't mean that you've been sent off packing to Babylon. I do mean that all of us, at different points in our lives, have experienced times of great loss--exile. We've lost our place, our power, our privilege, our purpose, and likely our peace. We've lost relationships, jobs, homes, and maybe even the will to live. With that in mind, Jeremiah 29:11 takes on new and essential meaning. In the midst of loss, God still has a plan--a plan for blessing!

In the verses surrounding Jeremiah 29:11, I've discovered seven strategic steps intended to lead us back from exile.

#1--Know the Lord - Jeremiah 29:4

#2--Live your Life - Jeremiah 29:5-7

#3--Listen Carefully - Jeremiah 29:8-9

#4--Limited and Purposeful Suffering - Jeremiah 29:10

#5--Follow God's Leadership - Jeremiah 29:11

#6--Locate God - Jeremiah 29:12-14

#7--Liberation - Jeremiah 29:14

Over the next several days, I will work through these seven steps, putting a little more meat on the bone. If you are like me--a returning exile (or maybe you are just starting a new journey into exile), God has something life-changing to say to us.

The Purpose of Pain

"For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasurably great glory that will last forever!" (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Have you considered the purpose of your pain?  It's not for nothing!  This verse makes clear that our difficulties produce, "an immeasurable great glory that will last forever".  Imagine that!  The crisis that you've just come through, or perhaps that you are coming through, is producing glory that you will experience forever. 

James explains it this way, "Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." (James 1:2-4)  God uses trials to perfect us.  I often say that our painful experiences either makes us better or bitter.  We get to choose how we react to problems.

Today, lets trust God with our issues.  Should you find yourself struggling, remember this verse, and instead of getting grumpy or depressed, begin to give God thanks for the good He is doing in your life.  Don't get bitter! Get better!