Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
Have you ever felt unsettled? Some of you may be thinking, oh man, that's my life right now. I'd love to share the Verse of the Day.
It's Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 13. "If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me."
Here is the incredible, unique context of this verse. Here you have, "If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me," this wonderful promise. The goodness when you're going through it, when you're feeling unsettled or something else. If you look for me, if you look for the Lord, He'll be found. It’s a wonderful promise to hold on to. But the context makes it so much more unique and adds so much more flavor to this verse.
The Context: Captivity in Babylon
This passage, when it was written, is actually during the time that Israel was in captivity in Babylon. In fact, in the context of the passage, God even warned the people of Israel through Jeremiah—"Even if your prophets or your diviners all speak into and say, 'Oh, I had a dream from the Lord,' or 'I have this,' or 'I have that,' or 'I have this message from the Lord,' and it's different from what I'm about to tell you, it's not from the Lord. Don't listen to it."
Jeremiah had said that they would be in captivity for 70 years. Well, imagine another prophet comes along and says, "I have a dream. I have a message from the Lord. We're going to be out in 30 days. Yay!" People celebrate because that's what they want to hear. Here you have Jeremiah saying, "This is the message from the Lord. We're going to be here for 70 years."
Imagine what's going through your mind. For most that are hearing that message, they would be thinking, I'm going to die here. I will never see my home again. Talk about feeling unsettled. Where is my legacy now? Where is the inheritance I was going to leave for my children and my children's children that we used to be in the Promised Land? We used to have all of these things that I could give to my children. Now I'm being told the message from the Lord is, "You're going to be here 70 years." I won't live to see us going back home.
This World Is Not Our Home
Before our Verse of the Day is the verse that many of us refer to of, "I have a plan and a purpose for you, not to harm you." Well, it may be difficult to hear that. It's easy to hear that sometimes when we're in a better place or we want some encouragement. But when you have a message from the Lord saying, "This is my plan, is you're going to be here for 70 years," it's like, I'm not actually just unsettled. This is going to be my home. I'm not ever going to be able to see my home. You imagine feeling that unsettled.
The context of how I would love to use this in our life today is the Bible says that this world, this earth, is not our home. Sometimes things feel difficult because you feel unsettled or things aren't going well. Yet something that God has used in my life tremendously is the reminder that when I'm unsettled, when I'm feeling like I'm just not feeling comfortable, not feeling there, where I'm feeling like everything's clicking, it's always that reminder of God saying, My child, you're not home yet.
The Greatest Legacy
Even though you may feel unsettled, you may feel like life is just keeping you rocking, off-kilter, I would just encourage you because this verse, when it says, "If you look for Me wholeheartedly, you will find Me," because when they're asking the question, where's my legacy for my kids and my grandkids? Where is my inheritance that I'm going to be able to pass down? I'm living in a foreign land. God's reminding Israel to say, "Remember the inheritance you had of why you were My people? Because the inheritance that you have, the greatest gift and legacy you can pass on, is searching for the Lord wholeheartedly."
The greatest legacy you can leave to the next generation is for them to see you passionately seek after God wholeheartedly. Imagine if they were able to see that as you searched for Him passionately, you found Him. The presence of our Lord in our life is the greatest legacy, the greatest inheritance we could pass down to any generation. May we hold tightly to that today. No matter if you're feeling unsettled, may He be the settling in your heart today for those around you to see the legacy that you have to pass on of a pursuit of our Lord, and that He is able to be found.
May you live in that today.
