A COMFORTING LETTER

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11 NKJV)

We have much to learn from the good advice given in this letter.

These exiles were unwilling to settle in the land to which they had been transported. They were always fretting and planning; talking of the past and contriving plans for returning to their own land and to the inheritance which they had forfeited. Therefore this letter was sent, not only to them, but to all in similar circumstances.

Are you in captivity? Your circumstances are the restraint and chains that hold you. No prisoner in a cell could be more helpless than you are. You cannot do as you would, but you can be something. Be the best you can where you are, and wait for the Lord's leisure. It is by the faithfulness in discharging present obligations that you become fitted for better work.

Consider the needs of those around you (Jeremiah 29:7). In this the story of Joseph is a remarkable example. When he was cast into prison, he set to work to minister to the prisoners there. What a light and comfort emanated from him, as he went to and fro among them, taking a personal interest in each,” Wherefore look ye so sadly to-day?" (Genesis 40:6-7). In the peace of those to whom we minister, we shall find hour own peace.

Words of comfort and hope were spoken to the captives. Hard though their outward lot seemed, God was thinking thoughts of peace, not of evil, with respect to them. So with us; we may be having a bad time; it may appear as though everything were against us, hard, comfortless, and uninviting. But in His holy heaven God is thinking about you, and His thoughts are those of peace, and not of evil. Therefore the horizon is shining with hope. There is a good time coming, and you will forget this present, as waters that pass away. There is an allotted time to your present trouble. God will surely visit you, and perform His good word towards you.

In the meanwhile, we must live a life of constant prayer. "You shall call upon Me, and I will hearken unto you; you shall seek Me, and I will be found of you" (Jeremiah 29:12-14). We must live in a spirit of prayer and faith and converse with God. For all these things God will understand and respond to as only He knows how.

PRAYER

For all Your gracious care of us we reverently thank You, and if You have permitted things to happen which have tried us sore and filled us with bitterness, help us to believe in Your infinite love which chastens us, that through the discipline of our life we may be made partakers of Your holiness. In Jesus' name I pray this, AMEN.

God's Daily Promise

Promise #360:
Nothing in all creation will ever separate you from My love. 

Romans 8:35-39 (WEB)
35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” 37 No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.