The God of Exile...

"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles who I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon . . . " (Jeremiah 29:4).

Here is a tough question: Is it possible that you are in the tough spot that you are in (what I'm calling exile), because God wants you there? I don't know if you want to hear this or not--but the answer is  YES! God sometimes sends us into exile. The verse above clearly says that God sent the Israelites into exile.  

Why does God send us into exile? Because it's in the pain that we gain! "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors" (James 1:2-3, The Message). I've heard it said this way, "What comes out when you are squeezed is who you really are". Yikes!

In our journey through exile and ultimately back home, we have the opportunity to come to know God in a fresh way--as the God of Exile. It is challenging, to say the least, to set aside our notions about what God must be like, and to instead experience Him personally, as so many have throughout the pages of Scripture.  

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Let me invite you today to experience the God of Exile. Your great discomfort may just be an indication of the size of the project that God is undertaking through you.

"For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?" (Isaiah 43:19, NLT).