Tag: Gods people

Posted in Bible study, Devotion, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time

Hope For the Exiles

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based on the Love God Greatly Study, Living Faithful in a Faithless Land / w6d3

Scripture: God’s Road Map for Our Journey / Jeremiah 29:1-14 (11)

For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope.

Jeremiah 29:11

Jeremiah 29:11 is used to congratulate graduates, comfort those whose lives aren’t going the way they hoped, or encourage those who are facing some of life’s big decisions – but it is important to keep in mind that the verse was initially given to God’s people whose world had just been turned upside down. By God’s own hand, they were living as exiles in Babylon, which I can only imagine seemed like the furthest thing from hope and a future of any kind, but that is precisely the message God sent through Jeremiah, one of “hope and a future” and the reminder that God did not plan to harm them. He wanted them to remember “whose” they were and that He was in control, even when it didn’t seem like it.

It may not have seemed to the Israelites that God even remembered them, but He did, and as today’s journal entry points out, “God was working out His plan of salvation amongst all people, in all places, throughout all time. It wasn’t just for those in exile. God was at work to restore and rebuild what was broken when sin entered this world. From the returned exiles, a descendant would come who would be the Savior of the world!”

As we have seen throughout our journey, the faithless Kings and people of Babylon saw evidence of Israel’s true and living God—who protected Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace and shut the lions’ mouths to protect Daniel. When Israel’s restoration comes, it will be for all nations to know that He is the Sovereign LORD.

We may not always get what we want, and our plans may not work out the way we envisioned, but this promise of hope and a future is for us as well. Today’s journal entry says it best: “God’s plans involve you! His plans are to use you to encourage other believers and be a light to those who don’t yet know Him. You are the carrier of His hope to the world around you, which is often so hopeless.”

Prayer of Response to the Journey

Heavenly Father, you bring hope to me and this whole world. Help me to trust you, Lord, when my days are in turmoil, and I cannot understand. May I know you as the author and perfecter of my faith. Use me to bring You hope to someone in this hopeless world. – Amen

borrowed from Living Faithful in a Faithless Land, p189
Encouragement for the journey –

Friends, this group is not a place for political conversations, but it is a place for encouragement and hope between sisters and brothers in Christ – which is why I am sharing this verse and the story behind it … The day before the election, when my anxiety started rising again, God reminded me of this verse which we recently read in our Daniel study,

“…the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and appoints over it whomever HE chooses.” — Daniel 5:21

Regardless of how we voted or the outcome of the votes, we all need to remember that our God, the true and living God, is in perfect control! He rules and reigns over Kings and dominions. He is sovereign over all. 💜

The More We Know

For More Insight, be sure to check out today’s LGG Blog

Posted in Bible study, From Broken to Restored, From the Insideout, Journey Through The Word, LGG Study, Quiet Time

From Broken to Restored

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based on the LGG study, From Broken to Restored, w6d4

Scripture: Nehemiah 13:30-31 / SOAP: 13:31b

Please remember me for good, O my God.

Nehemiah 13:31b

This has been a repeated prayer for Nehemiah throughout chapter thirteen.

  • Please remember me for this, O my God, and do not wipe out the kindness that I have done for the temple of my God and for its services! 13:14
  • For this please remember me, O my God, and have pity on me in keeping with your great love. 13:22b

I love the opening paragraph of today’s LGG devotion. It points out that not only did Nehemiah do incredible things for Israel, but that God appointed him as the leader of His people when they were both physically and spiritually broken and vulnerable.

Think back over what we have read on our journey through Nehemiah. Remember how Nehemiah was determined to not let anything stop the rebuilding of the wall. Even with all of the challenges and interruptions that came their way the building continued. In large part, this was because Nehemiah “guarded the people and encouraged them when things were difficult. He protected them and challenged them to remain steadfast as they worked hard to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, the walls that would protect and set apart God’s people.”1

Nehemiah was a godly leader, a faithful servant who wanted God to remember what he had done – not because of sinful pride but, I believe, because he desired God’s approval. My favorite lesson of all the passages we’ve read in Nehemiah is that he was desirous – if not determined – to turn the people’s hearts to God. Oh that we might learn from His example. May we heed Paul’s advice to Timothy and work hard to receive God’s approval by being good workers who aren’t ashamed and who correctly explain God’s Word the right way. (2 Timothy 2:15)

The purpose of the walls was to protect and set apart God’s people.

Perhaps the best take-away from this six week study is that, “From broken to restored” was about more than just the restoration of the wall, it was about the restoration of God’s people.

1The LGG Devotion, From Broken to Restored, w6d4

Posted in Bible study, LGG Study

Everlasting Covenant: Week 2 Tuesday, The Promised Covenant

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Today’s Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31-37 (S.O.A.P. Jeremiah 31:33)

“The day is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. 32 This covenant will not be like the one I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt. They broke that covenant, though I loved them as a husband loves his wife,” says the Lord.

33 “But this is the new covenant I will make with the people of Israel after those days,” says the Lord. “I will put my instructions deep within them, and I will write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 And they will not need to teach their neighbors, nor will they need to teach their relatives, saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’ For everyone, from the least to the greatest, will know me already,” says the Lord. “And I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins.”

35 It is the Lord who provides the sun to light the day
    and the moon and stars to light the night,
    and who stirs the sea into roaring waves.
His name is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies,
    and this is what he says:
36 “I am as likely to reject my people Israel
    as I am to abolish the laws of nature!”
37 This is what the Lord says:
“Just as the heavens cannot be measured
    and the foundations of the earth cannot be explored,
so I will not consider casting them away
    for the evil they have done.
    I, the Lord, have spoken!

Lgg Blog
Old vs New Covenant
LGG devotional