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While this has been the worst year in American history, God is yet at work.  The story He is writing through the course of time is filled with triumphs that came out of tragedies.  One of these was when the Jews were carried away to Babylon for seventy years.  Their temple was torn down and the palaces of their kings destroyed.  Nothing was left of their previous civilization.  And yet, in that darkest of all days in their history, God was still writing His-Story.  He promised them that this tragedy would be used to work their repentance, which would bring them back to His order—and, in His order, there is always the flow of His blessing.

At this, the lowest moment in all their long history, God gave them an encouraging word through the prophet Jeremiah.  He boldly declared to the nation that, out of this tragedy, He would,

“…give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be My people, and I will be their God: for they shall return unto Me with their whole heart.” (Jeremiah 24:7)

He said, “I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord…”  They had gone into captivity because they had forgotten He was “the Lord”; that is, He was the Owner and Master of everything—including them!  He owned their possessions; and those should have been used for bringing their children and others into agreement with God’s way of thinking.  Instead, they had used them for their own pleasure.  He was the rightful ruler of their time and abilities.  Yet they had treated both time and abilities as if they had created these themselves; as if these existed for their selfish pleasure.  Does this sound familiar, as if it was America’s nightly newscast?  They had gone into captivity to a foreign nation because they had forgotten He was sovereign, meaning supreme in power.  Through their captivity they would again acknowledge that God was the rightful ruler of their personal, family, and national life.

God promised that, because of oppression from government, they would “…return unto [Him] with their whole heart.”  In other words, God would no longer be just a part of their life.  He would be their life!  They would no longer control what they did with their time, and only “pull God off the shelf” when they had a crisis.  Now they would start their day trying to hear His voice from the Scripture, and then listen for Him all through the day.  Their aim would be to join God in what He was doing; not to try to get God to join them in what they were doing—you know, by asking Him for His blessing on their projects!  Sound familiar?

And because they would “…return unto [God] with their whole heart”, God would again claim them as “[His] people”.  He would also commit to them to “be their God”.

The lesson for us is plain.  While we are under God’s judgment for giving our nation, over the last one hundred years, to the control of those who hate Him and His Word, He yet promises that we can again be a nation He will use—if we will repent of our selfishness and return to Him with our whole heart:  returning to live, once again, by the standard revealed in the Bible.

The Pilgrims came to know God out of their great sufferings for His cause.  Knowing Him well gave them the ability to create the greatest nation in world history.

Should not we return to the faith of our Fathers—and teach it to our children?

Think about it; because if you don’t, someone else will do your thinking for you—and for your children!  And you won’t like what that brings to you.  I’m Don Pinson; this has been Think About It.