Plans...

Plans....

It seems like this summer has been an inferno of fires all over...the weather is hot, dry, drought in some places....thundering clouds with flooding water in other places...burning homes, flooding others, destruction  all around..."Mother Nature" as some call it has broken out in a fury...

Reading Jeremiah, God allowed/sent similar destruction many years ago as judgement on nations who had turned their backs on Him...his hand chosen people, his redeemed people...they were taken captive into another country...
But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’”
Jeremiah 18:12

God wanted to bless...

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. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord , “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
Jeremiah 29:11-14

Earlier, this passage ended the book of Judges...

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.
Judges 21:25

Sounds like a repeat to me....

Some sat in darkness, in utter darkness, prisoners suffering in iron chains, because they rebelled against God’s commands and despised the plans of the Most High. So he subjected them to bitter labor; they stumbled, and there was no one to help. Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. He brought them out of darkness, the utter darkness, and broke away their chains. Let them give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for mankind, for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.
Psalm 107:10-16

I wonder what the historians will record about our nation as they look back on us...it would be nice if they found that we followed the Lord as some intended at our founding...but I am not sure that is what they will find...

We have had revivals at different times and turned back to our God, just as the Israelites have done...but we have turned away as they did as well...

"Where can we turn...but to the Lord" ( old song lyrics)....thank YOU..

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14

Help us to turn to YOU...