Sometimes the word of encouragement comes while we are still in slavery. It comes as a ray of hope, life and joy. Sometimes that word of encouragement comes to foretell deliverance. We rejoice, hopeful that it is just around the corner.
However, sometimes it is years before we see that deliverance come to fruition. And it doesn’t always come as we had hoped. Remember, as we talk about finances, and journeying the road to financial freedom, we are learning that while there may be some immediate answers and relief, there is often a process of walking, and learning, that cannot be rushed.
Remember Israel?
Enslaved by Egypt for 400 years, they didn’t see deliverance for all of those years, even though Abraham knew their whole story. Four hundred years seems a long time to wait.
So does 70 years.
In the time of Jeremiah, God sent word to the remnant of captives in Babylon that they too would be set free after 70 years.
Read His words:
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 29:29:10-14 NKJV)
Did you catch it? You know, the verses we are often inclined to quote when we want to encourage someone that God is truly good and has a plan for their lives. “ For I know the thoughts I think toward you…”
Did you catch the other part? You know, how after 70 years God would pull them from captivity.
If He was really good, wouldn’t He have done it sooner? If He is really good, why slavery at all? Without getting into all kinds of theological discussion, let me just say, that Israel needed to trust God even when they couldn’t understand. Besides they either trusted His Word or would stay captive.
Just as Israel did, we need to trust when we don’t understand.
Catch another point from the verses that follow the one we love to quote: Israel would be set free to call upon God, to pray to Him, to listen Him, to seek Him, to find Him, when they sought Him with all their heart.
God set Israel free from Egypt to go into the wilderness to worship Him. It was about relationship. God said to Israel, through Jeremiah the prophet, He would set the remnant free from Babylon after 70 years to see and find Him. It, too, was about relationship with the Father.
God has great purpose and plans and goodness that He pours out even in captivity, even in the Word of hope that takes 70 years to fulfill. The end result is all about relationship. Your freedom from debt enslavement is really about your relationship with God.
On your financial journey, remember this. God has a plan and purpose for you, but it doesn’t always go according to the plans you have. If you surrender to Him, and walk in obedience as He leads you out of slavery, you will find a promised land of peace and joy and hope that has nothing to do with your finances, but has to do with finding Him as the God of your everything, of your more than enough.
Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t about you. At least not about you only. It is about experiencing the journey out of captivity, to finding true relationship with the One who made you.
Rebecca van Noppen is a teacher, home educator, writer, intercessor, and More Than Enough blogger, who happens to be married to a financial coach. A lover of Jesus, she is on a journey of surrender, kindness, and generosity.
Keeping oneself from slavery actually comes from realizing that the slavery was horrible in the first place. How can it be that our minds wd ever think that slavery is better than the hard work it takes to move forward. But it happens. That’s when we can slip back into the familiarity of bad habits, at least we know what to expect, or so we think. The one thing that has helped my husband and I is having someone to be accountable to in the journey on a regular basis. We started out with once a month, then quarterly, now we are at every six months. We had to re-establish credit. That doesn’t mean Yahoo credit lines, credit cards, etc. It means sticking to a budget, having it reviewed regularly, and having someone walk with us when we don’t like the obedience and faith required to change and walk in a disciplined, self controlled life. Some asking “so how is the re-establishing credit” going. The most important part is believing and trusting in God’s plan – not just our own plan and life agenda. It’s really understanding that all we have and own is truly from God’s hand and allowing him to have ownership on everything. None of which is easy.
Good word Rebecca!
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