Painful Places of Life

Imagine for a moment that you woke up one day to find that the city where you live has been surrounded by a vast army and announcements are being broadcast that everyone must prepare to evacuate.  With nearly everything of value to you left behind, you are soon herded with everyone else into buses and transported to the nearest port where you board a ship bound for a foreign country.  You cannot believe this is happening.  But there had been a warning... 

For years, some fanatical preacher had been traveling around the country saying that a tragedy like this would happen if people didn’t turn back to God from their sinful living, but he had been largely dismissed by most of the clergy as a misguided radical.  Earlier this year, however, he had made a rather dire prediction when one respected local pastor essentially called him a liar to his face.  He, in turn, had responded that because this pastor was himself causing people to trust in lies that he would die before year’s end.  When the pastor actually did die a couple of months later, there had been a lot of uncertainty and speculation concerning the cause of his death.

Now, this same fanatical preacher is sending messages to the clergy and to your city leaders telling them to be prepared for a long stay in this foreign land.  He is saying, in fact, you will be there long enough to build a house, to raise children…even grandchildren.  Not only that, but he is even urging you to pray for the welfare of your captors. Can you even begin to imagine how you would feel if this were actually happening to you?

While this fictional vignette seems surreal to us, it is, nevertheless, a reasonable depiction of what had just happened to the nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem in Chapter 29 of the Book of Jeremiah.  As we continue to focus our attention on this section of Scripture, the harsh reality of going into captivity is hard for us to grasp.  Yet, in that painful scenario God reminds his people that He is absolutely in control and that He intends good for them and offers them hope for the future.

Perhaps you’re going through or are about to be taken into a “captivity” of your own.  Maybe it’s an illness, a job situation, a difficult relationship or a legal challenge.  It may be that the Lord will allow you to go into some painful place while many are assuring you that it will soon pass.  I pray that it does.  But God often chooses to work in and through our “captivity” to bring to us His best gifts.  He may reverse your condition and restore everything as it was, or He may show you that His grace is sufficient for you in your new circumstances.  It seems that we learn so much more from Him in the painful places of life.

How you come through your “captivity” depends on your response to it.  You can chose to accept it as something God has allowed to come into your life.  You can decide to obey His word and “build houses…and pray for your captors” trusting Him to work everything together for your good.

Or, you can continue to fight and become bitter and frustrated in a futile struggle to hold on to or get back what is being taken away.  It’s a matter of faith.  Either you believe because of His faithfulness and His promises even when you don't see the bigger picture, or you try to do things your way with the ultimate outcome that you lose hope and find no lasting peace.

The choice is yours.

And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. – Hebrews 11:6

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  – Hebrews 11:1