October 16, 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:

We must rest assured that what God presented to Jeremiah to be delivered to those who were in Babylonian captivity is no less true for us in today’s world. There is a saying, “What does not kill us makes us stronger.” We might consider that thought as we reflect on Jeremiah 29.11. How many times have we found ourselves in situations where we actually entertained the thought of “no survival.” We may even bandy about professions of “this just kills me” or “that just kills me” or “it just kills me.” We more likely mean that the situation in which we find ourselves is a tremendous challenge and stretches all our cognitive resources. We may be considering what our life would be like without something of value and wonder if it will ever be the same. Such thinking limits our vision of the future reducing it to the moment, the “here and now.” Yes, I know Jesus taught, “Do not worry about tomorrow, what you will eat or what you will wear for the Lord knows what is needed and will provide for you just as He provides for the birds of the air or the lilies of the field.” The last portion of Matthew 6 speaks to this whole type of thinking and resolves the conflict with “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and what is truly needed will be provided.” The reality is probably this: there are many things we think we need and can’t live without but there is only one thing that actually fits that category. It is the same for everybody and not just believers in God who are followers of Jesus Christ.

Martha heard Jesus say that to her when she complained that Mary, her sister, was not helping out in the kitchen. What was Mary doing that she couldn’t live without? She was at the feet of Jesus listening with attentive ears and a wondering spirit. She had tuned her heart, mind and soul (literally orienting her bodily attention in the direction of Jesus as in a posture of worship and praise) to the “Jesus” channel. She was centered on Him. Mary knew that without Jesus nothing else mattered. She would have been honest with herself if she said in that moment, “I would just die without Jesus” or “it would kill me if there was no Jesus.” That thinking would be put to the test a little later when Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, became very ill and died. No amount of preparations could Martha do to prevent his death nor her sorrow. Mary’s belief in Jesus as “life and living” was stretched nearly to the breaking point. When Jesus finally arrived at their request (but for their needs, He was too late as their brother had died), He was greeted by them both separately together saying, “If only You had come sooner, then this would not have happened.” Their lives had come to that breaking point where any good sense of the future collapsed into the tragedy of the “here and now.” And they were right, “they would have die if it weren’t for Jesus.”

Jesus reminded Mary and Martha of the promise of resurrection. He said “I am the resurrection and the life; the ones who believes in Me, though they may die in the flesh, will live.” (John 11.25) In other words, there is a purpose which is validated by believing in the “one thing” which alone matters. Belief in Jesus is the lynchpin of our existence. It is meant to be the pivot point of our lives from which all blessings flow. Only in trusting Jesus as God’s true word of life and love can see us through our “here and now” to wrap ourselves around the promised tomorrow for which we do not have to worry. This is what God was reminding the Babylonian exiles, and Jeremiah as well in his own exile in Jerusalem, to keep in mind. In His commitment to be just, fair and good, discipline for a lack of faith and a failure to “remember who and whose they were” was not meant to “kill” them but cause them to prosper. God’s faithfulness to execute justice is testimony to God’s faithfulness to deliver them from the evil they had bound themselves to. God always had in mind that His people, those who would dare call on His name and commit themselves to it whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female would be saved and brought into the fullness of life in the Promised Land which God has made. Mighty ones of God in Christ Jesus, if it weren’t for God’s faithful commitment to us, we would be dead though we are alive in this world. This world was never intended to be our final resting place. Why surrender to the world when we have the entire Kingdom of God promised to us?

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.