Scriptures of Encouragement ~ After I Go and Pray

The broom raked across the hardwood floor, scattering breakfast crumbs in its wake. My body went through the motions of daily routine, but my mind was wandering through the stratosphere searching for God. Trials of life were taking their toll. Hope for a secure future raced down a road leading through dark shadows and angry branches of despair.

"Nan," I heard Him say. "Come and sit with Me awhile."

I increased my sweeping speed hoping the busyness would drown out the Holy Spirit's prompting.

"Nan."

My head dropped. Shoulders shrugged. Sweeping stopped.

"Yes, Lord?"

"Come and sit with Me."

I leaned the broom against the counter, stepped over the pile of crumbs, and shuffled into my study. I curled up on the loveseat and opened my bible - one of those flop-it-open-and-see-where-it-falls kind of openings. 

(I know you're chomping at the bit to know where it landed, aren't you?)

"For thus says the Lord: 

After seventy years are completed at Babylon, 

I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, 

and cause you to return to this place. 

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope. 

"Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, 

and I will listen to you.

"And you will seek Me and find Me, 

when you search for Me with all your heart. 

I will be found by you, says the Lord,

 and I will bring you back from your captivity..." 

~ Jeremiah 29:11-14

Well...okay, then.

Right in the middle of that clump of verses - right after the one we LOVE about the future God has prepared for us, and right before the one we LOVE about searching for Him and finding Him - is this verse: "Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to You."

Call. GO. Pray.

Have you ever noticed the word go in that verse before? Me, either. But that was the lesson the Lord wanted to teach me.

God emphasized to me, right there on my cozy loveseat, that He knew of my captivity to despair and, therefore, He would be faithful to complete the good work He had begun in me, and He would set me free. He also wanted to remind me that He would show me great and mighty things of which I did not know - things that would give me a future and a hope.

But here's the clincher: He will be found by me and I will be released from my captivity after I GO and pray. In other words, He wants to be my first love. He wants me to GO - to set myself apart from busyness to search for Him with all of my heart. With no distractions. With no agenda. Just loving Him.

For it is in Him that we live, and move, and have our being. In Him. But if we are too busy or too complacent to place Him first in our long list of priorities, then I'm afraid it's like standing in a river dying from thirst because we won't take a drink. It's like being held in chains while the key to freedom is in our pocket.

At least, that's what I learned while sweeping up breakfast crumbs this week.

That road leading through dark shadows and angry branches of despair just came to a fork in the road. I think I'll take the fork to the right.

SELAH

Photo credit: www.designersart.com



*********************************************************
If you received Morning Glory via email, please visit the Morning Glory  page. I'm featuring a powerful song by Lenny Leblanc titled, "Lord You Have My Heart". It will stir the spirit within you. Promise.