HALF IN OR HALF OUT?

Jeremiah 29:10-14

10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 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. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 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”.

These four verses in Jeremiah comprise a letter that the prophet wrote to those who were in exile. We often concentrate on verse 11 because of the beautiful promise attached to these words. We apply them to our lives because we do want God to take our lives and make them worthy in every way. Each verse is packed with meaning but the verses that stand out to me are the two that follow because I believe they are the key to God being able to work in us and through us. 

The direction we are given in verse 12 is that we need to call upon God and pray to Him with sincerity and He will hear us. It requires our will, our intellect, our commitment and our ears!  At the end of the verse the exiles are given a promise. God promises He will hear them. In verse 13 God states the condition by which He will listen to them. He promises to be found “when you seek me with all your heart”. It requires HEART, nothing else, just their hearts. 

I ask myself about how I seek God; do I seek Him with all my heart? If we wish to claim God’s promises we must be completely in. Not half hearted but rather committed in order to hear His voice and act accordingly to His guidance. 

Question:

Are you listening?