Day 219, or August 7. Maybe you need to look a little harder. Our thoughts today are rooted
in Jeremiah 29 verse 13. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your
heart.
And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Jeremiah has a number of individual verbal
duels with those who are not convinced that Judah will ever be taken away into exile.
He writes a couple of letters to those who will finish up in Babylonia in exile. He writes
specifically to the leaders who are amongst the first ones to be taken into exile. He
confirms once again that it will be seventy years, but adds a few times that God will
rescue them as soon as they have served their time away from the land God had given to the
nation of Israel. God is not punishing them unfairly. In fact, they deserve much worse.
However, God loves them so much that they will be released as promised, and God tells
them that He Himself will bring them back. What a promise!
And now today's action step. When you lose anything of value, how hard do you look for
it? I remember losing my wallet some years ago and spending the next few hours ringing
around to cancel all my credit cards. My frenzied activity finally came to an end when the doorbell
rang, and our next-door neighbour handed me my wallet that he had found earlier. I was
so relieved that I couldn't be angry. I had searched with all my heart, but I still
needed help. Thankfully, God tells us that He will help us by being findable. But we
have to look. I still remember playing hide-and-seek with our two boys when they were young. I
concealed myself too well, and they got fed up and went outside to play. It took a while
before it dawned on me that they weren't looking for me, and I resolved to make myself
more obvious in future. God does this for us too. For all of us, there are times when
God seems to be absent from our lives. Why not look a little harder for Him today, because
He really wants you to find Him, so He isn't too well hidden.