Continuing, Michael writes: After Israel had been taken captive by the Babylonian king because they had forsaken God and followed their own devices Jeremiah 24:1-7 says, “The Lord showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the Lord, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad. Then the Lord said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.” Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.”
Like God’s promise to Israel through His prophet Jeremiah, God will give us a heart to know Him when we return our hearts to the Lord. God has called us to the body of Christ so that together we can follow in the footsteps of our Lord Jesus. God wants to reproduce children “after His kind.” The character of our Heavenly Father is love, mercy, grace and faithfulness. These are the qualities that He will reveal in us when we return our hearts to Him with a whole heart.
To forsake sin is to turn unto our Lord. To flirt on the edge of sin is to be consumed by the world, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. You’re most like the friends with whom you associate. This is why we’ve been called with a collective calling as the church of the living God, the body of Christ. When we together answer God’s divine appointment to assemble ourselves together, then we can have fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, and one with another in the household of faith.
Whom the Lord loves, He chastises. The word of God is profitable for doctrine, for reproof and correction, for instruction in righteousness. To correct means to restore to an upright position. Even though it hurts to be straightened out, God restores us upright for our own good. The blessing is that we will be returned to a position where we can glorify God.
According to Jeremiah 29, God has a plan to restore you to fellowship with our Father, His son Jesus Christ and one another in the body of Christ. God is a God of reconciliation and restoration. The requirement is that we repent ... that we turn from ourselves and unto the Lord. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The consequences of sin and iniquity leave scars even though we have been reconciled and forgiven when we repent. God’s grace and mercy forgives us when we repent with a broken and contrite heart of humility and meekness.
God’s plans are for our welfare and not for calamity ... Therefore Paul said, not only in my presence but also in my absence, work out your own salvation, your own wholeness with awe, respect and reverence. For it is God who worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. When we deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully make our delight the Lord’s delight, then God will work within us to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Therefore, conduct yourselves like men and women who stand their post to which God has assigned you. Then we shall realize His plans for good and not for evil ... to prosper and be blessed. God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11-13 says: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.”
That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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