Beyond the Porch Swing
Hi Friends, Welcome!
I'm delighted to be sharing with you today!
I've had you all on my mind a bunch. I want to give you food for
thought. So, if I succeed, I'd love to hear them. Please share them
with me in the comment section below. I'm also, slowly figuring out
this blog thing. (Shout out goes to son-in-law Ben! He's been great
help.) I've been able to add a few new areas. Please
check them out!
Bible study will be a big part of this
blog, so I want to introduce two of my favorite study tools. I use the
YouVersion Bible app. It makes it easy to read the passage in different
versions. I also use the Bible Gateway app. It has free Bible
commentaries. And these can be yours too! 😊 (I sound like
a TV infomercial!) They are both free, just download them. Of
course you can always use your actual Bible and commentaries, if you have
them.
I encourage you to re read and think on the
passages shared here, on your own. God may take it in a whole new direction for
you. Sometimes I think about a verse for a couple of weeks before I can
see what God is telling me. Keep it simple. It's amazing how the Holy Spirit
reveals things, just using a regular Bible, when we really want to learn!
Which brings me to today's post; the theme verse
for Beyond the Porch Swing.
Jeremiah 29:13
"You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with
all your heart."
As kids on grandpa and grandma’s farm, Wolf in
Town was a favorite hide and seek game of my sister, cousins, and I. It
was the best being the wolf. Creeping around corners, spying on the towns
people hunting for me, the wolf. I loved waiting for the exact time
to jump out, hopefully scaring them, and tagging them before they got
away. Seeing their startled face when they saw me, hearing them
shriek “Wolf in town!”, seeing all my other hunters run from their search areas
to home base, was thrilling! I knew I was to tag someone, making them
wolf, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to be wolf again. And then, if
our uncles would play with us? Well, that took the game to the next
level! (Ha! And I wonder when my love for reading murder mysteries
started! ) Fun memories.
Though Jeremiah 29:13 isn’t the game wolf in
town, it often gets confused in my mind as the same. I get feeling like
God is the half hearted wolf, who enjoys hiding from me. When I do find
him, he jumps out and scares me, I scream and run away. Why do I
run? Well let me tell you:
A. He wasn’t where I thought he should be.
B. He isn’t doing what I thought he should be
doing.
C. And, for crying out loud, he scared me!
What kind of God is he!
Let’s go back and really look at Jeremiah 29:13.
First we need to see what our background info is.
Backing up to verse 10;
“"For thus says the Lord: When seventy years
are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my
promise and bring you back to this place.”
Jeremiah 29:10 ESV
What do we see happening? The Israelite's
have a seventy year "vaca" with the Babylonians. Who were
the Babylonians? They were kinda like the ISIS of that day, not fun
people to have against you. Vaca gone haywire! Plus, God says
they get to stay there for seventy years, then He’ll show up and fulfill His
promise. That’s a long wait!
That brings us to many people’s favorite verse;
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord,
plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
Wait, God is telling them that His plan for their
prosperity is going to be dependent upon seventy years of pain? He
says He isn’t doing this to be evil, but to give them a future and hope?
Why? How does that work?
“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and
I will hear you.”
Jeremiah 29:12 ESV
When do we cry out to God the most?
Through pain. When do we finally quit fighting against Him? When we
realize how not in control we are.
What kind of heart does that produce in me? One
that sees Him for who He is and myself for who I am.
A few weeks ago in church, Kevin, my husband, (for
those of you who don’t know, he's the pastor at Finding Life Church
in Ralston, NE) asked us to go home and read Job 38-40. I actually
remembered and read it! It brought me to tears. Who is this God who
knows every detail of creation? Who is this God that holds everything
together? Why, oh why does He even pay any attention to me?!
When I get a glimpse of who God is, then I call on
Him in respect. I pray and ask for things in submission. Then He
allows me to find Him, because my heart is right.
Now let’s read verse 13 again.
“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all
your heart.”
Knowing the background changes the verse. It
has a heavy qualifier; ”with all your heart”.
Questions:
Am I seeing my life only as I want to see
it?
Am I looking for Him in every crook and
cranny, longing to know the real Him?
To those who don’t know God, He is a scary
wolf. But reality is that He wants to tag us to be His precious
child. He wants to join in "the game" of life with us. Popping
out with views of Himself that sustain us, and other times, just to treat us,
over and over again. He’s better than a fun loving uncle, because He's
there in every part of life.
“I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will
restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places
where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the
place from which I sent you into exile.”
Jeremiah 29:14 ESV
Prayer:
Oh mighty God! That I have the privilege
of being able to call You Father astounds me! Thank You for Your
incredible grace and mercy. Thank You that You know what I need to be
drawn into a intimate relationship with You. Thank You for the extent of
what You’ll do to wake me up so that I will give myself to You.
You gave and give Your all to me daily.
Before the creation of the world you knew me. You knew You were going to
have to sacrifice Yourself in order for me to be made right before You. Yet You
created and gave!
I’m sorry for my selfish pride. Please keep
after me. Please don’t leave me to myself!
Amen.
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