Trusting the Lord’s Plans

“ ‘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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 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 29:11-14 (ESV)

The situation for the promises found in the focal verses from Jeremiah 29:11-14 is a letter written by Jeremiah the prophet (inspired by God) to the Jewish exiles taken in 597 B. C. to Babylon. He wrote the letter to reassure the exiles that God had not abandoned nor forgotten them. The letter, in addition to being sent to the exiles in Babylon, was also circulated to the scattered and discouraged remnant remaining in Judah. 

 

He advised the exiles to make the best of the situation they were in. They were encouraged to build houses (imagine their being able to do this in exile!), plant gardens, get married, have children. The general intent was to encourage them to stay strong and look forward to being delivered, even though they would be seventy years in exile. We know from how life is that many who went into exile would meet death before freedom came and the people could return to Jerusalem. But Jeremiah wanted to infuse them with hope and to assure them that God had a future and a hope planned for them.

Jeremiah encouraged the people to remain prayerful, to seek the Lord sincerely (with all the heart) and find Him. Just because they were out of their homeland did not mean that God had abandoned them. And they were to remember with certainty that God had plans for them, “to give them a future and a hope.” When anyone loses hope he cannot hold on, cannot aspire to better prospects or to a brighter future. God who holds the future, knows what our future is.

And God declared through Jeremiah that His plans for His called-out people’s purpose was “a future and a hope.”

Maybe we have had to “go into exile,” to go away from familiar places we have loved and which have been home. It is not easy to pull up roots and relocate, to “start anew” in an unfamiliar place. Or maybe our exile is from illness or some debility that prevents our doing the work or taking on the pursuits we once enjoyed. These exiles are hard, but they are not the end of the road for us. “ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord” (v. 11). Isn’t it a remarkable thought to consider that God has plans for our future and these include our welfare?

Couple this wonderful promise from Jeremiah’s letter to the exiles with Jesus’ admonition in the Sermon on the Mount: “Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:34, ESV).

Bible teacher Dr. Warren Wiersbe stated of Jeremiah 29:11: “God thinks about you personally and is planning for you. You need not fear the future.” Let us latch onto the promise in the verse and change any anxiety we have to hope and thanksgiving that even our future is secured by God Almighty. –Ethelene Dyer Jones. October 11, 2015.

Examine Your Motives in Good Deeds and Giving

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” –Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV).

Jesus taught much on the theme of living the Christian life in the real world. He warns that practicing righteous acts, giving to the needy and praying can, if the disciple is not careful, inadvertently or deliberately call attention to the doer so that he does these acts of Christian righteousness and piety to be seen of men and to receive praise from men.

He warns strongly against being hypocritical in behavior and in good deeds. Public acts of obedience are honorable, but if they are done merely to be seen of men, then there is no reward from the Father in heaven.

To be a hypocrite—pretending one is something he is not—uses the Greek word for “play-acting,” or wearing different masks, as on a stage, in order to be seen in the role of various characters. We can do the right thing for the wrong reasons, and thus be a hypocrite. The Pharisees were known for making public ado about their giving. This public show of their charity was the only reward for their giving, for the Father in heaven was certainly not pleased with their calling attention to their gifts and generosity. The only reward they will receive is the public acclaim they seek for their action.

“Let not your left hand know what your right hand does” is a metaphor for secrecy in giving. The best Jewish thought held to giving alms without boasting or making public what the gift was. In the Temple, alms boxes were placed strategically to provide charity gifts for widows and orphan children and other needs of the Jewish community. Most of the givers did not make a public outcry of how much they gave, and that was good. Those who tended to proclaim their generosity for the adulation of men were condemned by Jesus. Our motives for giving are always open to God. We should give from an open, generous heart, and that not for praise from our fellowman, or for bragging purposes of how much we gave. Now with our income tax returns requiring that we show proof of our gifts to charitable and authentic religious causes, we know that those who are accountants of such funds know what we give. As we say, “times have changed,” and we have to comply with the laws of our land. But even in our modern means of accounting for our gifts, we can still have a good conscience, one that does not seek adulation of men, but seeks the approval of God who looks on the heart and knows whether we give willingly and cheerfully.

Is our giving done in a loving and generous spirit, without calling attention to how good and caring we are by the gifts we render? - Ethelene Dyer Jones 03.15.2015

“After This Manner Therefore Pray…”

“After this manner therefore pray ye:  ‘Our Father, which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” –Matthew 6:9 (KJV).

            Prayer as we’re taught it in the Bible, is dialogue between God and his people.  The disciples had observed Jesus going apart to pray.  One of the Lord’s disciples made this request:  “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1, KJV).  The result of Jesus teaching His disciples to pray is what we have termed “The Lord’s Prayer’ (recorded in Matthew 6:9-13 and in Luke 11:2-4).  But a better name for this prayer, which we sometimes pray in concert in public worship, would be “The Disciples’ Prayer,” for in it Jesus was fulfilling the request and teaching the disciples how to pray.  It is a contrast to hypocritical prayers, those uttered to be heard by men’s ears and to sound well in public.  Disciples are to beware of this type of prayer.  Likewise, we are to avoid vain repetitions.  So when you pray this prayer, really mean it from the heart!

            It would be well for us to remember, when we pattern our praying after the prayer Jesus taught in Matthew and Luke, that he was emphasizing how we are to pray.  The prayer covers adoration of God (Matthew 6:9).  Next is a plea for God’s kingdom life to be practiced on earth as in heaven (Now wouldn’t that be amazing? We should pray to that end!).  Then comes a petition for physical needs: “Give us this day our daily bread.”  Scholars generally agree that this plea is recognizing God as the provider of all we need, not only food, shelter and clothing, but whatever is necessary to our health and well-being that would help us grow in the grace and in the character and spirit of Christ the Savior.  The fourth petition is for forgiveness of sins and abstinence from temptation.  How well did Jesus know, when He taught the disciples this prayer, that even though they loved Him and wanted to follow Him, they were still bound about with human frailties and the bent toward temptation.  How we need to emphasize and pray earnestly for our own forgiveness, even as we forgive those who perpetrate unkind actions toward us.  Then the prayer returns again to adoration of God.  The Father that Jesus taught His disciples to direct their petitions toward is in control and He is good.  In our prayers we express recognition that He has “power and glory, forever.”

            Many quotations on prayer inspire and inform me.  Here is one I especially like written by Mark Hopkins.  I’ve underlined it in one of my prayer journals:  “Our prayer and God’s mercy are like two buckets in a well; while the one ascends the other descends.”  Likewise, this one by William Temple:  “Only one petition in the Lord’s Prayer has any condition attached to it: it is the petition for forgiveness.”  And William Law wrote: “There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.”  And in the words of John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-1892), American poet, the words, set to the hymn tune “Rest” by Frederick C. Maker (1844-1927) has these words of insight:  “(1) Dear Lord and Father of mankind,/Forgive our foolish ways;/Reclothe us in our rightful mind;/In purer lives Thy service find,/In deeper reverence praise. (2) Drop Thy still dews of quietness,/Till all our strivings cease;/Take from our souls the strain and stress,/And let our ordered lives confess/The beauty of Thy peace.”

            What prayer will you sincerely pray to “Our Father in Heaven? 

                                                                                                -Ethelene Dyer Jones 03.30.2014

Dealing with Conflict

“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” –Matthew 6:14-15 (ESV.

In human relationships, conflict is bound to occur.  This applies in many situations.  Marital conflicts bring disagreements or quarrels between husband and wife.  Children and parents disagree, on discipline, on directions a child may want to go that parents think will bring unwanted consequences.  In the workplace, jealousies or disagreements set people at odds.  In church life, “one side” disagrees with “the other side” about the work and mission of the church.  Wherever the conflict, it causes ill will and hard feelings, broken relationships.

Jesus was well aware that such conflicts are a part of human interaction.  He put it quite well on an understandable ratio:  “forgive others so your heavenly Father will forgive you.”  Because of our human nature, forgiveness is not always easy to accomplish.  A conflict arises between a mother and a daughter, a father and a son, parents and children.  The mother, father—those parents—might pray earnestly for the child whom they know is at odds with them.  The rift continues.  Sweet fellowship has been broken.

A wise observer of human relationships once said:  “You can spend the rest of your life praying for someone to change, but if unforgiveness is in your heart, God cannot answer your prayers.”  (in Allen, Lucile, comp.  Time Out for the Spirit.  Carmel, NY:  Guideposts, 2007, p. 188).  A mother had prayed long and hard about a conflict she was having with her daughter.  The friend’s word of advice made her realize she had not really forgiven her daughter, and until she was able to do so, the conflict would continue. The rift was mended with her determination to forgive her daughter and also telling her so.  A sweet relationship was restored.

Whatever you area of conflict, examine your willingness to forgive.  Know that there is a direct relationship between God’s forgiving us our trespasses as we are willing to forgive those who have trespassed against us.  Forgiveness brings not only relief of mind but it restores fellowship.

Prayer:  Today, Lord, let me examine relationships.  Where forgiveness is needed, give me the grace to forgive so that I may know the joy of restored fellowship with the offended person and with You.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.  –Ethelene Dyer Jones  08.18.2013.