Wait for my deliverance?! God are you serious? (part 2)

...have you waited long enough?  Are you ready for more?  First off, let me say Happy Good Friday to you!  It is amazing that God loved us so much that He would watch his Son go through tremendous amounts of pain, suffering, and death, on our behalf.  Jesus' death and resurrection ushered in the new covenant between God and His people, drawing us close to the Father.  That's always what God has wanted.  Fellowship with His children.  Through Christ, we are redeemed from our sin.  He delivered us!

The words in Jeremiah 29 also speak of deliverance.  They were written at the inspiration of God, through the prophet Jeremiah (in a letter), to the survivors of Israel, who were living in exile.  The letter was sent to the elders among those survivors to communicate God's love.  An important question to ask here is, "why were God's people living in exile"?  Quite simply, they were in exile because they were disobedient.  They had made a covenant with God promising to obey Him and to be His people (see Exodus 19 & 24), but had broken their promise time and time again.  God had warned them that if they didn't come back to Him in obedience, they would be carried off into exile.  In their disobedience they would be handed over to their enemies.  That is exactly what happened.  Here's where some people will stumble a bit. 
How could a loving God allow this to happen? 

It is because God is loving that He allowed it to happen!  It is no different than a parent placing a child in time out for misbehaving and being disobedient.  In fact, His discipline of His children through exile, was showing them His love (Proverbs 3:11 & 12 and Hebrews 12:5-11).  It takes love to discipline.

How we react to discipline actually prepares us for deliverance.  I am going to break some things down and hopefully help you see that deliverance from things that have us captive, takes time.  It isn't just GOD stepping in and doing it-poof!  Often times, He asks us to do something to prepare for His coming.  Does He need us? NO!  But He desires relationship with us so much, that he involves us...
let's go to Jeremiah 29: 4-6. 

"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters.  Increase in number there; do not decrease..."

This portion of Jeremiah says to me: CONTINUE LIVING!  Have you ever been in a place (maybe of exile) when it seems life has dealt a heavy hand and you just want to stop, curl up in a ball and ignore it?  These captives could have easily done that, but God was asking them to keep living life.  He wanted them not to get in the mindset of "this place is awful; whoa-is-me!"  He was having them to settle down and be content with the consequences (not ignore them) and to make the best of them. 

Are you in a place of exile?  Do these words ring true in your heart?  Simply ask the Lord to show you if there is something in your life that has brought you to this point.  I am not suggesting that it is always sin that leads us to exile, but I am suggesting that more often than we want to believe, it is sin that has leads us there!  Maybe your whole life feels like an exile.  If that's the case, I would ask if you have ever come into relationship with God through Christ?  Have you entered into that new covenant? If not, now is the BEST time to do that! If you are a believer and have come into relationship with God through Christ, then repent for that specific sin and ask God to forgive you!  Don't ignore what God is trying to show you.  If life is simply tough and it is hard to breathe, because let's face it, we are not promised a life free from trouble, then continue to live!

If you have determined you are in exile and have made things right with God by acknowledging your part in it and asking for His forgiveness, then prepare yourself by applying some of the other principles in Jeremiah 29:

     -As the Israelites were told to plant gardens and eat what they produced, plant the WORD of God in your heart and let it yield fruit in your life.  Find verses that address the opposite of the sin you are in exile for and meditate on those verses.
     -Be productive while you're in exile and do something to better the experience! 

I know the parts in Jer. 29 about marriage were put in place to ensure they didn't go "extinct," but to me this represents adding to God's family.  You being real about where you are and why, could be a tool to bring someone else into God's kingdom.  Don't stop sharing God and His love with others through your exile experience. 

Between now and the next post, meditate on this small portion of scripture.  Ask the Holy Spirit (God's Spirit) to shine into your life and reveal TRUTH to you about your life and your relationship with Him.  Begin to pray that you will have the right attitude in your exile.  Read the word, and prepare your heart. There's so much more to see (I wish that I could share it all at once, but I can't)!

Remember in this season of reflecting upon the finished work of Christ on the cross, that God loves you enough to never leave you where you are and He sent His Son Jesus to prove it!