10 “For here is what Adonai says: ‘After Bavel’s seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place. 11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,’ says Adonai,‘plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future. 12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly; 14 and I will let you find me,’ says Adonai. ‘Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,’ says Adonai, ‘and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’
15 “You say that Adonai has raised up prophets for you in Bavel. 16 But here is what Adonai says about the king occupying David’s throne and about all the people living in this city, your kinsmen who did not go into exile with you — 17 thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘I will attack them with sword, famine and plague; I will make them like bad figs, so bad they are inedible. 18 I will pursue them with sword, famine and plague and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth; and they will bring on themselves cursing, astonishment, ridicule and reproach among all the nations where I have driven them; 19 because they have not paid attention to my words,’ says Adonai, ‘which I sent to them through my servants the prophets. I sent them frequently, but you refused to listen,’ says Adonai.
"Rescued From Yourself" by Author: Mallory SauerExile—a condition that applies to our lives just as much as it did to the Israelites in Babylonian captivity. Everyone endures a period of “exile” at some point in life. If we choose to believe in life’s crises and dry spells that God has abandoned us, then we enter into self-induced exile—a hopeless wasteland of confusion. However, God is not the author of confusion.
God told the Israelites to “seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile” (Jeremiah 29:7). Instead of playing the victims, God wanted His children to essentially bloom where they were planted. Their exile served a purpose, if they would learn from it to seek Him.
God’s words may seem like tough love, but only when we stop wallowing in self-pity and learn to trust Him in all circumstances will we be saved from ourselves. Instead ofletting you remain in hopeless confusion, God wants "to propser you and not to harm you...to give you a hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11). Surrender your heart to Him, and He will rescue you from exile when the time is right and lead you with love.
Hymn for Today: "Opwn My Eyes, That I My See" by Clara H. Scott
1. Open my eyes, that I may see
glimpses of truth thou hast for me;
place in my hands the wonderful key
that shall unclasp and set me free.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes, illumine me, Spirit divine!
2. Open my ears, that I may hear
voices of truth thou sendest clear;
and while the wavenotes fall on my ear,
everything false will disappear.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my ears, illumine me, Spirit divine!
3. Open my mouth, and let me bear
gladly the warm truth everywhere;
open my heart and let me prepare
love with thy children thus to share.
Silently now I wait for thee,
ready, my God, thy will to see.
Open my heart, illumine me, Spirit divine!
Thought for Today:
"who gave himself for our sins, so that he might deliver us from the present evil world-system, in obedience to the will of God, our Father." [Galatians 1:4].
Please pray:
For the development in Christian leaders in Togo.
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