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Day 219, or August 7. Maybe you need to look a little harder. Our thoughts today are rooted

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in Jeremiah 29 verse 13. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your

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heart.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Jeremiah has a number of individual verbal

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duels with those who are not convinced that Judah will ever be taken away into exile.

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He writes a couple of letters to those who will finish up in Babylonia in exile. He writes

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specifically to the leaders who are amongst the first ones to be taken into exile. He

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confirms once again that it will be seventy years, but adds a few times that God will

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rescue them as soon as they have served their time away from the land God had given to the

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nation of Israel. God is not punishing them unfairly. In fact, they deserve much worse.

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However, God loves them so much that they will be released as promised, and God tells

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them that He Himself will bring them back. What a promise!

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And now today's action step. When you lose anything of value, how hard do you look for

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it? I remember losing my wallet some years ago and spending the next few hours ringing

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around to cancel all my credit cards. My frenzied activity finally came to an end when the doorbell

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rang, and our next-door neighbour handed me my wallet that he had found earlier. I was

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so relieved that I couldn't be angry. I had searched with all my heart, but I still

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needed help. Thankfully, God tells us that He will help us by being findable. But we

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have to look. I still remember playing hide-and-seek with our two boys when they were young. I

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concealed myself too well, and they got fed up and went outside to play. It took a while

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before it dawned on me that they weren't looking for me, and I resolved to make myself

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more obvious in future. God does this for us too. For all of us, there are times when

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God seems to be absent from our lives. Why not look a little harder for Him today, because

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He really wants you to find Him, so He isn't too well hidden.