Don't Lose Heart: Endure The Process

"'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord , thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.'" Jeremiah 29:11

The verse above is often quoted, especially to comfort and assure people of God’s faithfulness in the midst of difficulties. Truly, this verse serves this purpose since God Himself said it to comfort and confirm His care and faithfulness to Israel, His people. However, the truth is that sometimes we do not receive the fullness of the comfort found in this verse because we do not understand the historical context in which it was written, nor the biblical context in which the verse is inserted.

The verse above, as comforting as it is, was spoken when Israel was in Babylonian captivity. Jeremiah 29:1-2 says, "'Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon. (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.).'"

God had prophesied long before through the mouth of prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 39), and then through the mouth of Jeremiah himself (Jeremiah 1:13-19) that Israel would be taken into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar as a result of their disobedience, and so it happened. Most of the people were taken away, but Jeremiah and a minority remained in Jerusalem. However, the prophet Jeremiah still maintained contact with those who were taken captive. As we have seen in the verses above, this chapter 29 of the book records one of the letters that Jeremiah sent to his fellow Israelites in exile. It is written, "'The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,'" Jeremiah 29:3

Despite being in exile, the people lived in anticipation of returning to Jerusalem; they were ready to see the end of their captivity. This expectation was fueled on one hand because they knew that God is merciful, compassionate, and that his anger does not last forever. As it is written, "'And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord , the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”' Exodus 34:6-7

On the other hand, this expectation was also fueled by them listening to false prophets who prophesied what they wanted to hear, instead of listening to the true prophets that God sent. Yes, God would judge them for a time, but that time belonged to God and not to them, because, “God knew the thoughts that He had for them.” However, the people, once again, would not listen; they wanted to hurry things up and get out of captivity. Yes, the situation they found themselves in seemed contrary to the thoughts that God said He had for them, yet He was in control.

Jeremiah begins the letter by saying, “'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace. '" Jeremiah 29:4-7. Imagine how the people felt when they read the opening words of this letter! How would you feel?

They longed to get out of captivity, but God told them, "Build houses and dwell in them." They longed to return to the land flowing with milk and honey, referring to how fertile the soil was, but God said, "Plant gardens and eat their fruit" in the land of captivity. Since many of them were no longer able to marry in Jerusalem, they at least dreamed that their sons and daughters would marry and be given in marriage in Jerusalem, but God said, "Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished."

Because they had been taken captive, they certainly wished Babylon harm, wanting another empire to come, take over Babylon, and let them return to Jerusalem, but God says that they should not think that way, on the contrary, "And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.'" Imagine receiving a letter like that, contrary to all your dreams, and even apparently contrary to all the promises of God Himself had made. God had said long before that He would take them to the promised land, fulfilling the words He had spoken to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet they were in exile. Imagine!

In similar circumstances, many of us would say that Jeremiah is a false prophet, that he was prophesying wrongly, that he was against them, and in fact many of them thought so; therefore, they mistreated Jeremiah and ignored his words, preferring to listen to others who at least "comforted" them, but with false comforts. Thus, God himself warned them through Jeremiah saying, "'For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed. For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the Lord .'" Jeremiah 29:8-9

Like the people of Israel, sometimes when we are in the midst of difficulties, we become anxious and ready to see the difficulties pass; We refuse to listen to those who speak sincere words just because their words go against what we want, and instead we listen to those who always speak and dream according to what we want. But God says, "I have not sent them, they prophesy falsely," be careful, do not be deceived! This does not mean that in the midst of difficulties God's message will always be that we must endure them, certainly not! Sometimes God himself sends deliverance, just as he had done countless times for the people. We need to have Discernment.

Have Discernment

Psalm 50:15 says, "'Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.'" God is saying that in times of difficulty, trouble or distress we can call upon Him in prayer and He will deliver us, and we will exalt or glorify Him with thanksgiving. Again, God's will is not always for us to endure or go through tribulation, sometimes it is for us to be free from it. God is the one who knows the thoughts He has for us, good plans and not evil, so in the midst of any and every situation we must always seek to understand His will, to access His thoughts. Remember Jesus in Gethesemane, He said, "[...], “O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.”' Matthew 26:42

If God's will is for deliverance, let us trust Him for deliverance; if it is for the ability to endure, we must likewise trust God for that. In any and every situation our attitude should always be like Mary's, "'Then [...] “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” [...]'" Luke 1:38. This does not mean that we remain passive in the face of the situation, but rather that once we are sure of His will, we submit to God's will and act based on it to obtain the end that God desires. Submission to God is generally not easy, our flesh fights, and the enemy tries to stop us, but it will always be the best for us.

Jeremiah continued the letter by saying, “'For thus says the Lord : After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.'" Jeremiah 29:10. God had a set time limit of 70 years before He would visit the people and bring them out of captivity. This is certainly not what the people wanted to hear, but 70 years was the time God had set for His purpose. So God commanded them to build houses, marry, give in marriage, and seek the peace of the city they were in, for they still had many years ahead of them. Certainty, they didn't take it with easy, but it was the will of God. Although good, perfect and acceptable (Romans 12:2), His will often challenges us.

Although unexpected, Jeremiah’s message was still filled with hope. God reaffirmed His love and faithfulness to them by saying, "'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord , thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord , and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord , and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.'" Jeremiah 29:11-14

God seldom does things overnight, and often this is a problem for us. Of course, He can do it overnight, and in fact, He has given us several proofs of this in His word. For instance, If God created the heavens and the earth overnight, even though the concept of night and day did not even exist, what is it that He created? can't do it?! This doesn't mean that whenever we notice a delay in certain things we should just fold our arms and simply conclude that God doesn't want to do it quickly, certainly not! Sometimes we should check our level of faith and obedience, or if we are fighting hard enough to achieve the promise.

For example, it is written in 1 Timothy 1:18, “'This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare,'". Paul was exhorting Timothy to fight or battle based on the promises, and not simply rejoice because he received promises. Which leads us to see that just because God spoke does not mean that things will happen immediately; we are at war, we need to fight the good fight to see God's will done. Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, “'And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.'" Matthew 11:12. It is not merit, it is effort.

For example, this prophecy of 70 years that God gave through Jeremiah had expired in the days of the prophet Daniel, but they still did not return to Jerusalem automatically. When Daniel realized that the prophecy had already expired, he did not say that God is a liar; he only began to lament. Instead, he began to humble himself before God and pray, asking God for understanding. As a result of Daniel’s actions, today we have one of the greatest revelations of what happens in the heavenly realms when we pray and fast.

The Bible says, "'Then he said to me, “Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words. But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days; and behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left alone there with the kings of Persia. Now I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the latter days, for the vision refers to many days yet to come.”' Daniel 10:12-14

In short, you see that each situation is different and it is up to us to obtain the necessary discernment to know what situation we are going through! That is why God commonly makes us go through processes to mature us before fulfilling certain promises. Perhaps you have heard that between the promise and the purpose there is always a purpose, let me tell you that it is true. God can make promises to us, but there will always be a level of maturity, faith, submission, discernment and knowledge necessary to enter into the purpose depending upon it. That is why God Himself most often establishes a process to ensure that in practice we will mature, submit, etc., if we have not already done so.

Unfortunately, we are sometimes tempted to pray for deliverance while we are going through the process; we are tempted to create shortcuts, to shorten phases within the process due to the difficulties they present or because the processes do not seem to fit within the promise that God made. Israel certainly felt this way until they heard the words of Jeremiah. The truth is that some phases within the process can make us question whether we are really still in God's will or not. Several brothers in the Bible went through situations that led them to question whether they were still in God's will too, or perhaps situations that compelled them to give up.

Imagine Joseph being sold, after two great dreams, indicating that he would occupy a prominent position; David being pursued for many years by Saul to be killed before assuming the position of king for which he had already being anointed; Zechariah and Elizabeth being barren for a many many years before finally conceiving John the Baptist, who came to be the one who prepared the way for Christ; or imagine our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who worked as a carpenter for 30 years before presenting Himself as Christ, the son of the Living God, although He knew who He was. If you look at all these stories and many other biblical stories, you will notice that some parts of the process they went through sometimes seemed far from the purpose, but God was still in control, and they were exactly where God wanted them to be.

Despite everything, we must always rest assured that God is intentional in what He does and that nothing gets out of His control, even if it doesn't seem like it. "Only He knows the plans He has for us, plans of good and not evil." We need to understand that each phase and stage of God's processes are crucial. Even though it may not make sense to us at times, there is a purpose in all of God's processes. The problem is that we are limited beings, and most of the time we only contemplate a fraction of the purpose, and not the whole of it, but God sees the whole. Acting on the strength of our flesh, dropping from the process, or creating shortcuts during the process can give rise to Ishmaels and other unwanted fruits. Remember, trying to get rid of parts of the process also leads us to abort parts of the purpose.

Trust in God; He is sovereign and cares about you (Luke 1:37; 1 Peter 5:7). May the Lord give you grace to endure and flow in His processes, and to know how to wait on Him for the fulfillment of each promise. If you are in a process, God is transforming you to fulfill His plans. As clay in the hands of the potter, so are you in the hands of the Lord (Jeremiah 18:6). Be patient and trust in Him because for each process that God allows us to go through, there is a purpose. Remember, God is on your side, His plans are always good, even if we do not understand them. Whether it is a relationship, marriage, work, health, sanctification, ministry, studies, children, or even seeing Our Lord and Savior Jesus face to face on that day, and etc., do not lose heart, do not be discourage, endure the process.

God knows what is best for us, that is why He said, "'For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord , thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.'" Jeremiah 29:11

May God bless you.