Planting trees…2…

 Planting trees…2…

 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. 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.”

Jer.29.10-14

Yesterday was planting gardens, seeking the good for the place you have been placed for the Israelites…God nurtured the Israelites even in a foreign country…He doesn’t forsake us…wherever we are…

Right now, exile is personal…I am sure the Israelites did not want this sojourn to Babylon…some probably went kicking and complaining…rebelling against the order…but, they went…

The cancer diagnosis is an exile of sorts…you enter another world of learning, language, people, time…I was so shocked when the diagnosis was given…I wanted to kick and scream as well…

The Israelites knew 70 years would pass…with cancer, there is an unsure amount of time to pass…I have friends who wait expectantly for those yearly checkups, then a five year checkup…

But, there is hope…even in the exile…a plan that only God knows…a good that He is there…a good that He works…

 For in this hope we were saved. 

But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 

But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. 

We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 

And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 

For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 

And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Rom.8.24-30

Planting those gardens in a foreign land…called to a new chapter in life…a plan to prosper…hope to thrive …thank YOU….

 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.

Ps.1.3

 “But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.It does not fear when heat comes;its leaves are always green.It has no worries in a year of droughtand never fails to bear fruit.”

Jer.17.7-8

These verses is where I want my mind, my soul, my heart to flow…planted in God…

Planted by the waters…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54Xyh6mm0t4