When Israel was in captivity in Babylon, a group of people; calling themselves prophets, encouraged Israel to get comfortable, build houses, and to plant crops. They were to begin their lives in captivity as if it would never end. That's exactly what the enemy of your soul wants you to think, there is no hope so just get comfortable. They were there because of the choices they made not because God was mean. We need to remember they were there because of sin. They had, in essence, thrown out God's plan for their lives and gone their own way. They had exercised the God given right to decide. The travesty is that it not only affected them, but their children and grandchildren.
It's still true today. We can exercise the same God given right to choose and put aside God's plans for us and "do our own thing". We go into "captivity". But we are not captives of Babylon but of Satan. It is still our children and grandchildren who suffer from our rebellion against God.
There is hope for us today, just as there was for Israel. God always has a plan for us. Even when it is sidetracked by our parents or ourselves, there is a way to get back to God's plan.
In Jeremiah 29: 8-14, God gives a warning and a promise. He says, “Do not let your prophets and fortune-tellers who are with you in the land of Babylon trick you. Do not listen to their dreams, because they are telling you lies in my name. I have not sent them,” says the Lord. This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
The thing I like the best in that is we will find God if we look and He will end our captivity, bring us home, and restore what we lost and fulfill His promises in our lives.
No matter where you are or what you've done, God is waiting for you to "seek" Him so he can bring you home.
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