If You Could Rewind Time, Would You?

Nothing thrills my heart more than standing in a worship service and hearing 400+ people singing the song, He Has Made Me Glad by Hillsong. It brings chill bumps to me every time.  Something about the words just ring true for my heart. It makes me want to lift my hands to God as if I did so, I would be able to touch Heaven.

My Baby Girl is now able to lift her hands up to us when she wants to be picked up. It’s amazing how much she loves us already--and she’s just 13 months old! It comforts my heart to know that she trusts us, desires our hugs, wants us to comfort her when she falls, and sometimes just wants us to love on her.

Isn’t that how God is to us? We want to trust him, we want Him to comfort us during hard times, and sometimes we just want to know that He loves us, no matter how many times we mess up. But for some reason, as we become adults it’s hard for us to trust Him…we begin to doubt that He can fix our problems, that He cares, or that He even exists… Instead we put more faith in ourselves than we do in Him. We take control of the situation and later find out that we are EXACTLY where we started.

The Lord has been working on my husband and I. Everywhere we go, we seem to be hearing the same sermon on the same verses Jeremiah 29:4-14. In a nutshell, God wanted his people to go about their daily life: build houses, settle down, plant gardens, have children, have grandchildren and seek peace and pray for their city, while they waited on God. The next few verses say what will happen for God’s people when their wait is over.

                Jeremiah 29:10-14:  This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

Aren’t we always unsatisfied-searching for something better? Don’t we always want more? Think about it. In every stage of your life, you have been waiting on something…and the wait is always the toughest part. But the Lord says in Jeremiah that He will fulfill his GOOD promise. He has PROSPEROUS plans for you. He wants to give you HOPE and a FUTURE.  But He needs you to CALL on him, PRAY to Him and He will LISTEN to you. He will bring you back from captivity.

I googled the definition of captivity; Captivity is the condition for being imprisoned or confined. What are you imprisoned to? What confines you? For God’s people, it took 70 years to complete the wait. I’m guessing it “feels” like 70 years to you. But isn’t it so reassuring to know that He will come to you and bring you out of your imprisonment?! The only thing He asks of you is to seek Him with all your heart.

Something personal that God has been working on in me is letting "the wait" go. Sometimes I look back on my life and I think, “Where did the time go?” “Why didn’t I take those moments to relish what the Lord had given me instead of complaining about what I didn’t have? Time is flying by so fast…before I know it, Baby Girl will be grown up with her own children and I’ll be wishing to rewind time instead of fast forwarding it .So I’ve decided to wake up each day praying these words.

You have me glad

And I'll say of the Lord…

You are my shield

My strength

My portion

Deliverer

My shelter

Strong tower

My very present help in time of need...