Daily Devotion

Selection Taken From:
A Year with God by R.P. Nettelhorst

Make this the year you let God's Word "dwell in you richly"---and marvel at the results! Each entry in this 365-day devotional features Scripture verses in which God speaks, accompanied by insights and applications to enhance your understanding. Learn what God says about hope and fear; perseverance and quitting; companionship and isolation; and more! 384 pages, softcover from Nelson, Copyright 2010.


God Has Plans for You
Thus says the Loan of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, "Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Loan on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare."
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Do not let your prophets who are in your midst and your diviners deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams which they dream. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them," dedares the Loup.
For thus says the Low:), "When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans that I have for you," dedares the Loa), "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." - Jeremiah 29:4-13 NASB

False prophets predicted good times. They were quick to promise health, wealth, and prosperity. God warned his people not to listen to them because what they said simply wasn't going to be. Instead of good times, God, through Jeremiah, predicted that the false prophets were facing judgment and exile.

This news was hardly good, hardly comforting, and hardly what anyone wanted to hear. No wonder everyone was mad at the real prophets. They made the people think that God hated them and wanted to hurt them.

But God wanted to correct those misunderstandings. In the midst of the pain, God explained that his plans for them were good ones. They had a future to look forward to, and, oddly, in the midst of their misery they would turn to God, the one who seemed to be harming them. When the day came that they were genuinely sorry for what they had done, then he would listen to them and restore their fortunes.

Repentance is more than saying, "I'm sorry." Repentance is changed behavior. We have repented when we will do anything and take any punishment in order to make things right again.