Daily Devotion (February 24, 2025)
Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and hope.
What worse place could you end up! You wake up every morning an exile in a foreign country. You have crossed over the river of no return. You have been taught you were a special person. You have been educated in the best schools, your focus was on God, and you listened to the most popular teacher, preachers of your day. You walked each day with a holy glow about your life.
There is a problem. What has been taught from the pulpits, the lecterns of religious pseudo knowledge, is meant only for those who are looking for a shallow, feel-good drink the Kool-Aid. The sad part of this is it has taken over the truth of God’s Word. Many have been taught to bow down before the satanic lies of Satan.
Jeremiah was writing to the exiles in Babylon. They were lost. They were separated from God. They were uncertain about their future. Once they crossed the river, they felt God had abandoned them. They hung their harps in the trees and wept.
Jeremiah gives words of Divine assurance. Words coming from God. God had not abandoned them. The words did not come from the lips of the false prophets. The words were coming through the prophet of God. The hope was that God is sovereign and in ultimate control.
The prosperity preachers of today spew lies from the pulpits of Satan. They twist the Scripture of God into the lives of Satan. God gives us His Divine Assurance He is in control and has a plan for our lives. We cannot live the life of the world!
The idea of prosperity is not about material wealth but about our total wellbeing. God wants to bring peace into our lives. God cares about our spiritual health. The exiles found themselves in captivity because they listened to the false teachers; the purveyors of lies.
God does have a hope for our future. To believe in God is encouragement for us to keep on keeping on even in difficult times. Even if we suffer for a lifetime in the world, we know God has a great reward awaiting us on the other side of death. God gives us eternal life found in Jesus Christ.
God has a plan and a purpose for your life. That plan is not to be sucked into the ways of the world but to go into the world sharing the love of God. We are to live the life God has given us.