With All Your Heart

Scripture:

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity.

Today is Part 3 of our series looking at the context surrounding one of our favorite verses.  Jeremiah 29:11 is probably one of the most quoted scriptures in all of the Bible because it's so jam-packed with hope and encouragement straight from the Lord.  It points us to a God who loves us and is in complete control amidst the chaos of our lives.  If you missed the past two days, check them out.  And please come back tomorrow as we finish out the series!

Part 1: "When Seventy Years Are Completed"

Part 2: "Fulfill My Good Promise"

Part 3: "With All Your Heart"

Part 4: "Back from Captivity"

Observations:
Verses 12 and 13 say, "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  Verses like this one as well as Luke 11:9, "And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you," always bugged me a little bit.  My thoughts were, if God is listening and wants to answer our prayers, why do we have to wait for him to answer.  I've wondered-- if what I am praying for is his will, why hasn't he answered me yet?

For example, one of my friends has been praying for months that one of her colleagues would come to know Christ.  She's told him about Jesus numerous times and has brought him to church a couple of different times when the gospel was powerfully presented.  But still he has seemed, for the most part, unaffected by what he's heard.  My friend's heart is breaking for this person.  And it's hard not to wonder why God hasn't answered already.

Let's look again at the context of this verse though.  God began in verse 10 talking about bringing his people back to himself.  I believe that is one of God's main purposes in postponing answers to our prayers.  He wants to bring us closer to him in the process.  Friday night at The Well at FpBlount, Matt Grimes put it this way, "God delights in our prayer because our prayer produces devotion to Him."  He quoted Luke 18:1-6 and pointed out that God invites us to pester him and bother him with our prayers because it builds our devotion… draws us close to the thrown of heaven.

Application:

As much as I've ever wanted anything I've ever prayed for, I want even more to be close to God.  I want him to have "all my heart."

I love how The Message translates Romans 5: 1-5:

By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us—set us right with him, make us fit for him—we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand—out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.  There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!

Isn't that so true?  When we focus on what our patience has yielded, we can't even measure the blessings he has poured out!  I want to be closer to God and to experience the fulness of His abundant plans.  So I pray that God would give me the courage to keep knocking in faith that he does "know the plans he has for me" (Jeremiah 29:11)… and that they are "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20.)  And he literally wants "all my heart!"

Prayer:
Dear God, thank you so much that you love me enough to draw me to you by any means possible.  I want to experience your plans for my life to the fullest.  So please help me to be patient and keep knocking.  Grow me toward you!  In Jesus' name! Amen!

Confident in this…

Miranda