Passage Read: Jeremiah 29-32
Meditation Verses: 32:24-25
Thought
The city is surrounded and about to be overthrown. All the people of Judah will be driven out and exiled, yet God calls Jeremiah to buy a piece of land from his uncle. Jeremiah is a prisoner in the court of the guard! The whole situation is as crazy as can be! Jeremiah will never get to take possession of the property. He will never be able to use it, but God instructs him to buy it. All to illustrate God's promise to restore the people to their land. God's purposes are so much greater than our lives. We exist to illustrate and honor and obey the Lord, even and especially when we seem to get no benefit from it. I am convinced that one day, Jeremiah will walk his property; he will own it and use it and live on it. God will not forget what He had Jeremiah do, and will reward Jeremiah for his faithfulness.
Application
My life is not my own, but it is God's to do with as He pleases. There are things He will ask me to do that I will not see the benefit from, not in this life. But everything I do in obedience to Him, everything I lose or must give up or spend without obtaining a return, He will repay, even if it seems like a total waste or loss, as in this case for Jeremiah. Setting my heart on heaven, rather than on the things of earth means I invest and labor for the very long haul. I don't seek reward here and now, but there and then. It may seem a lifetime away, but God's point is that He can raise the dead and restore what was lost in waiting for Him. Nothing I give up now in service to God will truly be lost; He will restore it and more when He sets up His kingdom. In giving up a present that cannot be held, I'm buying a future that cannot be lost. It is hard to give up the things I can see and hold and use; they give me security and a sense of safety and even meaning and value, but I want my security and comfort and meaning and value to come from God. I want to shift these entirely to Him.