Seeking the Lord’s Will

“Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” -Jeremiah 29:12-13 (ESV).

Jeremiah foresaw a time when people would genuinely call upon the name of the Lord, turn to Him in dependence and faith, seek Him with the entire heart, and God will hear and answer.

We have gone through a period when America was challenged to “Pray the vote.”  No doubt, many earnestly prayed.  And when the results of the election were announced, many may have been greatly disappointed, wondering indeed if the Lord’s will had been done.

How can we go forward from this point, seeking still to seek God’s face and God’s will for our country?  James gave us a strong clue in James 4:15:  “Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will do this or that.’”  We learn from history that when William Henry Harrison was elected president in 1840, he had great hopes for his leadership of our country.  On inauguration day, he delivered the longest speech of any presidential inaugural address before or since, lasting for one hour and forty-five minutes.  In the speech he gave detailed projections of what he hoped to accomplish in his tenure as president.  The day he delivered the speech was bitterly cold and he was not properly clad against the inclement weather.  Unfortunately, he contracted an infection that turned into pneumonia. A month later President Harrison died, not living to see the fulfillment of the dreams he had for his country.  “If the Lord wills”…is a stronger condition than we humans can comprehend or understand.  Man often plans and seeks to accomplish tasks he feels may be within the parameter of God’s will.  But sometimes the best-laid plans of mankind cannot be fulfilled.  God has an ultimate plan that will be worked out in His time and in His way.

In the meantime, what is left for believers to do?  Jeremiah had the right perspective.  Call upon the Lord.  Pray to Him.  Seek and find him.  Be so completely aligned with God that what we pray is a reflection of what God intends for the best answer for His people.  Is there a way we can know when we have done this?  Our prayers are surrounded by our genuine wish that God’s will be done.  Some serious problems still threaten the very stability of our beloved nation.  Even though laws have been passed that will allow abortion, same-sex marriage, and extravagant, above-budget spending and waste, these do not comply with God’s principles as set forth in His Word.  We cannot let up on our stand for what is right, nor can we fail to pray that these violations of God’s laws persist.  “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16).  We needed prayer before the election.  We need to continue faithfully in prayer.  We could change the words of the familiar spiritual to read:  “It’s my country, it’s my country, it’s my country, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”

Discerning God’s Plans for Us

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear 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 I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.” –Jeremiah 29:11-14. (ESV).

Many scholars agree that the verses here express the theme of the prophecy according to Jeremiah. He writes to the Jewish exiles in Babylon to encourage them. He firmly believes that after a seventy year period, the nation will be restored. Oooh! Was this encouragement to the exiles?” Most of them, especially the adults, would have died natural deaths in their foreign refugee camps before the “perfect” round of seventy years transpired! God’s judgment on their rebellion would take time, but in the end the nation would experience the mercy of God.

The verses in the context of this chapter lend themselves to an outline. While in a foreign land, the Jewish people had some tasks to accomplish:

1. Make the best of the current situation of bondage (vv. 4-6). Go on with life. Build houses, get married, have children, keep the faith. Accept things as they are and do the best you can under the circumstances.
2. Pray. Pray for your captors. Pray for the Israelites. Lift up conditions in prayer (7).
3. Use discernment in voices you hear (vv. 8-9). Don’t gain false hope. Be faithful.
4. Look at the long-term results (v. 10). Here, Jeremiah prophesies that in 70 years the nation in exlile will be returned to Israel.
5. God has definite plans; hope in them! (v. 11). God has a future and a hope in mind.
6. Seek God diligently (vv. 12-14). He has a plan and it will be worked out. Even though we may not be able to see it and understand, He is at work and will bring His plans to pass.

I am re-reading this outline again and applying it to any bondage we have today: whether our dilemma is job insecurity, severe illness in the family, economic decline, concern over members of our families, disappointment over progress our church should be making in evangelism, service and missions ministries, God offers the same plan to restore us as he did in Jeremiah’s day. Dr. Warren Wiersbe says of Jeremiah 29:11: “It is a powerful promise to claim when you are ‘in exile’ God thinks about you personally and is planning for you…You need not fear the future.” May we be faithful to pray, work and wait.