11 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah29:11-13
Our brokenness causes a loss of purpose. We become self-centred and self-absorbed - but this is not a purpose that satisfies.
We long for purpose and direction. We want our lives to count for something. We struggle with futility.
This was Israel's struggle. Their rampant idolatry and sinfulness led to their defeat at the hands of the Babylonians and the destruction of Jerusalem and their idolised temple. They found themselves in Exile - "by the Rivers of Babylon" - where they were sucked up in a day to day grind of slavery and loss of purpose.
Jeremiah writes them a letter to reassure and awaken them:
- God still has a plan for them and the plan is not thwarted by their failure.
- These plans provide hope and a future.
- But in order to link into these plans, they will need to seek God.
Paul gives the Ephesians a similar sense of hope: Having described humankind's fall into sin and how Christ rescues us from our sin-debt through grace alone, he then reminds them: "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." (Eph2:10)
The Greek word for "workmanship" can also be translated "handiwork" or "masterpiece" and gives a sense that God is personally involved in the shape and direction of our lives. Even in our brokenness, God has plans that we can slot into and find real purpose and direction.
The bottom line? You can mope at the "Rivers of Babylon" or you can embrace the restoring forgiveness of God and plug into the dream He has for us!
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Theo Groeneveld theo@emmanuel.org.za
You can see past EmmDevs at http://emmdev.blogspot.com/
