Understanding a Promise Given to Us

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”

Understand in context

Jeremiah was having a hard time

Loved & Hated

The people were having a hard time at constant risk of annihilation

Some, probably the aristocracy fled to Egypt

They took Jeremiah with them

Tradition has it, taken from Paul’s reference to a great cloud of witnesses that Jeremiah was placed ina log and sawn in half.

Yet there is this promise

When you pray,

I will listen

If you look for me wholeheartedly

I will be found by you

Then and only then is there the response of being gathered of growth of prosperity

Understanding the spiritual truth behind the promise

In the New Testament, for us today we need to go a step beyond just claiming a promise from the Old Testament.

We need to go a step further than having some understanding of the historical context

We need to understand the promise in the light of Christ

The primacy of knowing God through Christ

You see everything for the Christian is about relationship with him

1 John 5:20 NLT

And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.

Then this understanding of the primacy of Christ flows to the understanding the hope he has given us

Ephesians 1:18 NLT

I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

Once we have these ideas firmly in our heart.

Firstly the claim of any promise is understood in light of relationship with Christ.

And then flows into an understanding of the hope he has given us.

Then the truth that everything we do, every battle we face, every effort we make in ministry, every success we have is based on these truths and is above all a spiritual battle.

The primacy of spiritual insight

Colossians 1:9 NLT

So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Ephesians 5:17 NLT

Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do.

Now do I think that you have to have this checklist in your head in every situation you face.

Of course not.

It is simply enough that you have an approach of seeing everything through Christ and by his leading.

Our prayer should be.

Lord you are sovereign over all.

Show me where you are at work so that I may serve you there.

Understanding people and situations

Then we can see the situation with people in light of these things

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