October 13, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a [certain] future.’“

(Jeremiah 29.11)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Yesterday, I said, “If anyone thinks being a Christ follower is easy, then they do not understand the call to faith.” Those who put their faith in anything and then attempt to live in this world by it will find that life is difficult. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, easy about being a human being in this world. God didn’t create easy but enduring. And I am speaking to those who are “mighty men” of God specifically. Those who put their faith in Him shall not be disappointed. From Isaiah to Proverbs to Psalms to Hebrews to Mark, from Genesis to Revelation, we find constant words which declare that those who put their faith in God shall not be disappointed. It is not a “Get out of trouble free” card in this world. By the choice of others, we live in a world that is full of trouble and sorrow and madness. It is a world infested with demons and infected with sin. But we are not alone. We have the promise of Immanuel, God with us, to help us remember to choose to walk and work with Him in all things and at all times. God knew and knows that life in this world for us is a choice. This is what makes us different from all other life forms on earth. We have a choice. We have the choice to trust in God with our whole heart, mind, body and soul or not. It is the choice that is never easy. It is also not impossible to choose God. It may seem impossible because of the challenges which confront us daily, hourly and even moment by moment. It is not impossible because we keep our vision prioritized. It is our “vision” that allows us to maintain a proper orientation which will lead us through this world into the next.

Yes, many have said it before as have I including Jesus Himself, “This world is not our home.” We dwell on earth for our little while to experience life in a fullness not otherwise available. As I mentioned the realities, for example, of knowing dark because of light and vice versa or of hunger because of fullness, so we are better able to understand heaven because of earth. Notice I did not say “hell.” Too many people believe that this world is hell. It is most certainly hellish but it is not hell. If this world, the earth on which we live, was hell, it would be a whole lot worse. I shake my head whenever I hear someone say, “hard as hell,” “cold as hell,” “hot as hell,” “dumb as hell,” “the hell you say” and on and on. How does anyone but Jesus Christ know? He is the only one who descended into Hell and live to tell about it! And He doesn’t. He warns us about the “pitfalls” of life which mimic the agony of life for those who choose to live as if God is not with them. Of course, that is a lie as God is always with us until we are finally not with Him in Hell. God is here. The Spirit of the Living God promised to us by Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior is here. And the body of Christ binding themselves together in spirit and in truth is here, for better and worse. I will say again, however, “This world is not our home.” It is not our final resting place. It is not the result of the everlasting judgment. That result is revealed in only two places: Heaven and Hell. So, if this world, this earth, is not our home why then do we mistreat it and others as if it is? I think it is simply because it isn’t easy to live in this world on earth unless we have a clear understanding of where our “home” truly is.

As Jeremiah spoke to the exiles of Israel who were in Babylonian captivity, this was the message he was given by God to share. Babylon was not their home. Sadly, many were making it their home and slowly being integrated into that culture and climate. They watered down their faith and polluted their faith practices in order to fit it and survive. Some would fight the good fight, as Paul would have said, and sought to maintain the traditions and expectations of being people of God in the midst of those who were God’s people. It was not easy. It was a struggle. For some, it may have felt a bit hellish (as if most of them actually believed in a hell which they did not) because they longed for the Promised Land. The news would come, however, of the destruction and desecration of the Temple. The walls of Jerusalem were torn down exposing her inwardness and shame. She was “uncovered” just as was the woman caught in adultery with her accusers (which Jesus knew but they thought they had covered it up to “protect” themselves) or Noah in his drunkenness being discovered by Ham, his youngest son. The fields were laid fallow with no sign of planting or harvest. Sheep were without a shepherd, literally and figuratively. Even the people of Israel were now submitting to their captors, taskmasters and assigned rulers and becoming less than who they were intended to be because it seemed easier so to do. They were finding it wasn’t easy as the consequences were more and more severe the further away from being faithful to God they moved.

It isn’t easy; but it is not impossible. This is what God had Jeremiah say to the leadership of Israel in Babylon. He knows the plans He had for them and it wasn’t to suffer and become distraught to the point of giving up. In fact, God had appointed the time of their discipline and their freedom; seventy years. Their challenge, if they choose to accept it, was to endure those seventy years and stay faithful to God. He would restore them. They would find the spiritual victory and the fruits of that labor if they did. God had given them a spirit of life and ability. It was His own spirit given to them so that the two would be as one. It is no different for us today in the world and on this earth. It isn’t easy but it isn’t impossible. Hold fast. Trust and obey. Obey and believe. Believe and receive. Receive and rejoice. Rejoice and be glad. Be glad and know that He is the God of our salvation who never fails.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.