God’s Plan in Exile
“…I regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Babylonians. 6 My eyes will watch over them for their good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up and not tear them down; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, for they will return to me with all their heart” (Jeremiah 24: 5b-7).
When the Israelites sinned repeatedly and rebelled against God
God punished them by sending them into captivity
God is not a mean or punishing God
God does not banish us forever
God does not abandon us
God always has a plan
His plan for us is
Restoration
Reconciliation
Intimacy with Him
When we don’t learn from
God’s unmerited favor
God’s continued blessing
God cooing us to Himself in sweet fellowship
When we drift from God in the good times
We live with entitlement to God’s blessings
We expect and demand God’s bounty
Forgetting what God has done for us
Taking for granted God’s favor
We become proud and independent from God
God’s heart is grieved
God yearns for our love and relationship
God wants us to be dependent on Him
God wants our constant fellowship
God craves intimacy with us
He desires for us to be part of the circle with the Triune God
God the Father
Jesus the Savior
Holy Spirit the Comforter
God calls for us to join Him in this intimate circle
Where we become one with our Triune God
And He with us
The intimacy of fellowship between the wings of the cherubim
In the Holy of Holies
Where
All is quiet
Hushed presence of God
Peace-filled
Shalom
Sacred
Holy
Where God is
Where God wants us to join Him
When we break fellowship with God
Turn our backs on Him
Take Him for granted
Go about our lives without consulting Him
Only seeing what we want to see in the Scriptures
Making God into a genie or our servant
Turning deaf ears to His voice
Hardening our hearts
Ignoring Him
God’s heart is grieved
If blessings don’t bring us close to Him
God gives us over to our sinful desires
God sends difficulties and trials
So we can learn that
Without God we are nothing
Without Him we are destitute
God’s plan amid our self-induced sufferings though
Is to call us back to Him
In our darkest night
God has a plan for us
God’s perpetual plan
God’s unchanging desire is
For us to draw close to Him
For us to depend on Him
For us to turn to Him
With all our heart
While not all our difficulties are self-induced
Sometimes there are trials and testings
God making us holy through difficulties
God molding and forming and refining us
God showing Himself glorious through us
The end desire still is
For us to draw close to God
To be intimate with Him
To rely on Him
and Him only
God’s plan for us is
Always
To bless us
To draw us close to Him
To have us love Him with
All of our heart
All of our soul
All of our mind
All of our strength
"God is Love" - Song by Kathy Nichole
