Happy New Year, dear friends. As you declutter your house from all the Christmas decorations, do you find yourselves (like I do!) needing to declutter your life? I pulled out an old metal sign from storage that says SIMPLIFY...that is true for more than one aspect of my life. I won't bore you with the details...but suffice it to say there are some parts of me that have held me "captive" for a very long time. Jeremiah was speaking the words of our verse today - spoken by God - to a people held captive by the Babylonians around 597 BC. He was encouraging them to make the best of their circumstances: to build homes, to seek the peace of the nation that held them and to trust their God and His plans for them. What held you captive in 2022? Guilt? Regret? Unforgiveness? Resentment? Worldliness?
Sally Livingston, LMFT, in her book, "GET OVER IT: 4 Steps to Breaking Free from the Stuck Cycle", says about the false narratives from trauma and pain that become our worldview: "The unrealized and unhealed wounds keep us mentally and emotionally imprisoned." Friends, we get stuck in old patterns and old mindsets...some we've had since childhood! She says:
"The battle is in the mind...Only God's truth corrects the errors of perspective in our minds...When we take our thoughts captive and challenge our perspective, we are able to lay them down in favor of God's truth. We can choose to see His plan and take courage in the most difficult of circumstances."
Don received this coffee mug at Christmas from a sweet friend.
These words come from "The Chosen" and were spoken by Jesus to Mary Magdalene who was ashamed of her past and couldn't bear to look at Jesus. Isaiah 30:18 says: "The Lord longs to be gracious to you".
Jeremiah's words say to us: God's plans for you are good...your plans not so much! When you know that His plans are full of hope, why would you not seek Him today...His promise is that if you seek Him He will find you and "bring you back from captivity". What good news is that?? And He did just that with the Israelites...He brought them back from captivity and blessed them. Through faith in Jesus Christ, we can know the God who has these plans and seeks only our devotion and obedience (John 3:16). Today, will you trust His plans for you? LOOK UP!
For further study: Gen. 4:7, 2 Chron. 16:9, Ps. 33:20, Proverbs 23:18, John 8:31, Rom. 12:1-2, 2 Cor. 10:5, Phil. 2:13, Col. 2:8, Jas. 1:14.
Be blessed in your understanding of God's word,
Holly
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