I expect many of us have been there at one time: we’re following a new recipe, or a manual for putting together a piece of furniture. We get to the end and realize we missed reading something in the instructions and suddenly our final product is not what it should be. But – – would we purposely leave out those steps in our efforts to replicate the dessert or product?
God’s Word is exact. His ways are pure. Why would we purposely leave out the context of what He is saying in His Word? Just like striving to make that dessert exactly like the picture, we also strive to be more like Jesus, following and obeying Him because we love Him and believe in Him. This means reading all of God’s words, not just the ones we want to hear. Otherwise it’s like deciding there are too many screws required in the framework and choosing to not use them, only to find everything sagging and out of place.
I was studying Jeremiah 29:11 again, really focusing on what was happening prior to God’s words in this verse. Jeremiah is writing to the exiles in Babylon, telling them that the Lord Almighty wants them to build houses, settle down, get married and increase in number, seek peace and prosperity in the city to which God carried them. Pray to the Lord for that city, because if it prospers, they too will prosper. Don’t be deceived by the false prophets and dreamers – they are not sent by the Lord. When seventy years are completed for Babylon, He will fulfill His promise to bring them back. For the plans He has are meant to prosper them, not harm them, and to give hope and a future. They are to call on Him, pray to Him, seek Him with all their heart, and they will find Him and He will bring them out of captivity.
But he doesn’t stop there. Jeremiah continues telling them from the Lord that those who did not follow into exile will be destroyed by sword, famine, and plague because they have not listened to the words of the Lord. And neither have these exiles listened. Hearing that the others who didn’t listen are going to be taken out, but that I have a chance to turn back to the Lord and follow Him, that He still has plans for me, would be a huge wake up call!
How easily we miss the full content of what God is saying if we only pull out a verse or two. We get excited at God’s promise that His plans are to prosper us, to give us hope and a future. But there is more: we need to seek Him, call on Him, turn away from the false teachings and lies. God takes very seriously the slanders against Him, and the false teachings that lead astray. So if I just hold onto one part of His manual, but ignore the “seek Him, call on Him, turn away from false teachings and follow God,” my framework will be rather wobbly, and eventually fall apart. May even be irreparable – I might not get another chance.
With all our heart seeking Him, with all our mind knowing Him, with our very soul following Him – taking in every part of His manual, for His words are true.