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