In Time You Will Understand

I finished day two of three of my IV drug therapy. The treatment will continue once a month for the next six months. It is intended to bolster my immune system and hopefully have some residual effects to giving my great strength. Thanks for those who have continued to keep me in your prayers.

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… The Lord’s burning anger will not turn back until He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart. In time to come you will understand it. Jeremiah 30:24 HCSB

We don’t know the outcome of the trials and troubles of life when they are happening. The Lord was doing something to and in His people that they could not understand or comprehend. He was using the oppressive power of Babylon and seventy years of captivity to “reset” their hearts.

They were to “settle down, seek the good of the land where they were being taken captive” with the assurance of the Lord’s promise, “…I know the plans I have for you….plans for your welfare, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11 HCSB)

Even during prophecies about judgment, the Lord spoke of the future plans for His people, I will certainly restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and show compassion on his dwellings. Every city will be rebuilt on its mound; every citadel will stand on its proper site. Thanksgiving will come out of them, a sound of celebration. I will multiply them, and they will not decrease; I will honor them, and they will not be insignificant.” (Jeremiah 30:18,19 HCSB)

The future was promising, but the present was dismal and hard. But the path to a new future, was through a “valley of weeping” a time of trial and testing. However, in the hardship, the Lord would be with His people just as much as He was in the “good” times. They were not a people that were forsaken.

God was going to fulfill His purpose for His people and God’s people would, in the proper time, understand the purpose of God that was being fulfilled.

When we look at Job, we see the suffering that the Lord allowed enabled Job to come to understand God in a way that he had not known and to see his own life in a way that he had not experienced. Through it all God proved Himself faithful and we see that hardships do come to righteous people, but the suffering is not in vain.

I think of the disciples of Jesus. Jesus told them about His crucifixion and resurrection. But they did not understand until the darkest of nights would be experienced. They still had to take the path through the valley of suffering, confusion and anxiety to understand God’s purpose at the proper time.

When I look at my life over the last three years, I see how the Lord was preparing to “reset” my heart and focus. I didn’t understand it at the time, but now, I can now see how God has worked to do in me and through me what I could not have planned on my own.

When I look at the current world of politics, I have to conclude that “God is up to something.” I don’t know what it is, but have confidence that we will understand it at the proper time.

An old hymn contains the words, “We’ll understand it in the by and by….” Those words refer to the perspective that comes with an eternity in God’s presence, but what we need to be confident that God is fulfilling His purpose in the lives of those who love Him and trust in Him and in the world at large. We don’t know those purposes before or during the time of testing or confusion, but we can confident that “In time to come you will understand it.”

Prayer for today… “Lord thank you that my experiences in life, my trials and suffering are not in vain. You use them, You redeem them to accomplish Your purposes. Grant the patience that is needed to wait for the understanding to come, that allows me to see Your hand and purposes being fulfilled in my life.”