This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 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. 14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile." (Jeremiah 29:10-14)
I was thinking about my last post and how hard it is to accept the Lord’s will in your life.
That is a common failing of all people, especially Americans. We are sued to doing it ourselves, pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, “if it is worth having, it is worth working for.”
All of that is true in life, but it doesn’t really apply in our relationship with God. And that is hard for people to grasp.
Jesus said, in Matthew 10:39, Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it. To win in Christ, we have to lose. That goes against every idea we could ever have. To come out on top, we have to go to the bottom.
That is the problem with many churches. They are dead and know in their hearts that they are. Yet they keep trying to be like they were in the old days. They want things as they were.
The only way for them to grow is to admit their defeat and allow God to work a new thing in them. They have to allow God’s will in their lives and in their churches or they will sit forever wishing they were larger.
Only God can build a church. If we let him.
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