Jeremiah 29:10–11: “For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a [desired] future and a hope.”

October 28th, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar attacked Jerusalem and took 10,000 captives back with him to Babylon. Jeremiah was still in Jerusalem and God had him write a letter to the captives in Babylon. This letter was written to people who had lost everything. From all outward appearances they probably believed that God’s plan for them was to wipe them off the face of the earth. But that is never God’s heart or His way of doing things with His children. God never wants us to fail, just the opposite. He works, moves, and plans for us to prosper spiritually. He wants us to be confident of His loving care so that we have an expectation, or hope, of a great future in relationship with Him. God uses the suffering and battering in the storms of life for our growth and good, making as Paul said, all things work together for good to those who love God” (Rom. 8:28). God’s intentions were to bring about blessings in Israel’s future, and our own.

All too often we allow the future to be colored by how we understand our current moment. We believers have a tendency to become so absorbed in our current difficulties that we forget how faithful God has been to us over the years we have served Him. Missionary Gladys Aylward had a harrowing journey out of war-torn Yang Chen. In 1938, Japanese forces invaded the region, and she led 94 orphans to safety over the mountains, despite being wounded herself. She found herself one morning with no apparent hope of reaching safety. A 13-year-old girl who was walking with her tried to comfort her by saying, “Don’t forget what you told us about Moses in the wilderness.” “Yes, my dear,” Gladys replied, “but I am not Moses.” The young girl wisely replied, with words beyond her age, “Yes, but God is still God.”

“LORD, we remember that You have told us to call You ‘Father,’ so we ask You to guide us today as our Father.”