God Will Rescue Us -- In the Here and Now and in the Great Day to Come!

"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 upon 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." Jeremiah 29:11-13

God has a plan for us, a plan for this church, a plan for you, a plan for your family, and for their lives. His plan brings hope, a reason for our lives in the here and now, and a plan for our salvation as well. He has that same plan of salvation for us. Jesus has already died for our sins, and been raised to new and eternal life, so we can see the outlines of this plan with greater detail than some who went before us, but it is the same plan. His plan is to bring all that believe to eternal life and glory.

He also has a plan for your life here and now. I cannot preach about it in any detail because each of us may have entirely different plans, as far as this world is concerned. But the plan is for us to live our lives as His believing children. We are showing the world what true faith is, and who God is, and what He has done for us and what it means to us and to life in this world.

When people see the reflection of God in us and in our lives, they will come seeking the difference, and then we can also share with them the meaning of Christ for their lives in eternity. But they need to see and hear Christ in your life in the here and now. The here and now is so important and impressive to us who know about the gift of eternal life.

Imagine how central here and now is for those who do not know and cannot believe in the hereafter God has revealed. They need to see Christ in you. They need to see the faith, the hope, the confidence in God for this life and for everlasting life. Sometimes we show that by how we set our priorities. Sometimes it can be seen in how we face adversities.

Occasionally, people see our Lord reflected in how we handle the good times of life, too. It shows in humility and good cheer borne of the forgiveness of sins and the knowledge of the love of God. The words we use and the way we judge or do not judge others tells a lot about our faith and hope - or the lack of it.

A big part of the plans of God include your prayers. "Then you will call upon Me and come 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. And I will be found by you." His plans include you talking to Him, seeking Him in times of trouble and need, pouring out your heart to Him, and finding that He is there, listening, answering. The best part of His plan is that you find Him, you know Him, and you talk with Him.

Of course, that searching with all your heart can only be done by believers, so your faith and salvation are central to His good plans for you. God promises us that we will call and He will listen.  Of course, in the Old Testament prayer was attached to sacrifices and priests in the temple.  But today, praise God, we don't have to go to the temple because we are the temple.

The Holy Ghost dwells in us. Our prayers aren't connected to physical sacrifices because the Pascal Lamb has been sacrificed - Jesus. So when we pray, our prayers are connected to Jesus, because we know that God loves us and will answer our prayers because of what Jesus did - and because of what Jesus said, in our Gospel today. We have those promises. What we don't have is someone telling us what the answer is. God want us to take that for granted: "Then you will call upon Me and come 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. And I will be found by you."

Just as God rescued the Hebrew people from Babylon and returned them to Jerusalem -- and helped them in their lives, He helps us in our lives and He is planning that great rescue to come, that final day when God comes and takes us all home to the place from which were sent into exile. That place is His glory. We were exiled in sin, and the world corrupted for our sakes all around us. The good plans of God are to end that exile and end the influence of sin, and bring us home to perfection and glory.

It won't seem like a return for us, because we have never personally known the perfection of sinlessness. But it will be a return to what God originally intended, and to a life of full communion with Him. It will be glorious. 'I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope'. And on that day, we will all recognize that the full plans of God for us are - on that day we will be more inclined to say 'were' - marvelously good plans!  Heaven awaits us, and we will see Him in all of His glory and we will surely REJOICE!