If this ministry has blessed you, please give so that others can experience the same blessing. Anything helps us push this mission forward. You can also give through Cash App at $ThoughtsByPace. Thank You!
Read Time: 6 mins and 33 seconds
This is what the LORD says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the LORD. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
Jeremiah 29:10-14 NLT
In 1957, Dr. Curt Richter, a physiologist working with Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, published a paper on an experiment he conducted to see how wild and domestic rats responded to stress. Part of his testing involved placing the rats of various conditions in water of various temperatures and taking note of how long the rodents could tread the water, but he discovered something more interesting than rat swim times. He recognized that wild rats placed in water-filled jars could swim for a few minutes to a few hours before giving up, while rats that were rescued from the water-filled jar and let free before being re-immersed in the water would swim for up to 60 hours. Yes, you heard that right. While the experiment wasn't designed to specifically test hope, many have retold this experiment to argue that the rats who experienced rescue in the past and had a belief that rescue was possible in the future therefore could endure the stress and strain of swimming for hundreds of times longer than the rats who didn’t recognize that rescue was possible and on the way.
I tell you this story because many of us are going through storms of our own where it feels like we are barely treading water. It feels like we've been dealing with the stress and strain of the storms of our lives, and giving up at times feels easier than carrying on. And while we may not be in a literal Babylon, we can identify with the children of Israel we read of in our text, as they have been taken away from their city, culture, community, and supposedly their God, and thrust into exile in a foreign nation. God is seemingly silent as they are stolen from everything they knew and loved, and I believe that you don't have to live too long to sympathize with this type of season.
Maybe your exile season was marital difficulty, a sickness God decided not to heal, a financial difficulty, or a season of oppression and opposition. Maybe you experienced the emotional weight of exile when God didn't answer the prayer the way you thought He would or when He allowed the stress and strain of more storms than you thought He should? I don't know what your exile season was or is, but I know you have either had one or will have one. You'll likely have a few moments where God feels distant and silent and like He’s saving everyone else but you. But I believe that the most important question to ask when going through a season of storms or experiencing exile is what you believe about God. Do you still believe that He is a good God who desires good things for His children? Do you still believe that when He doesn't do what you expected, you can expect Him to do something better? Do you believe that He still has a way of developing everything the devil meant for your destruction into something for your divine destiny? Do you still believe that He is in control? This is important, because hope may be the very thing that allows us to hold on long enough to receive our reward.
Could it be that belief in a savior, belief in relief, belief in rescue, and belief that the trial will soon be over could help us to endure difficulties and disappointments longer than we could with no hope? Could it be that a foundation of faith is all you need to make it to the other side of the valleys we find ourselves going through on the journey towards greater things? Could it be that the belief that this too shall pass and that it will be worth it in the end is what can allow you to keep your cool while you wait for your rescue?
You know, Ohio is considered the roller coaster capital of the world, but I am really not a roller coaster person. I've been to Cedar Point and Kings Island. I’ve been to Six Flags, Disney World, and Disneyland, but I don't get excited about the rides as others do. I’m ashamed to say I have a pretty weak stomach. I mean, I’ll get nauseous after simply reading a few sentences in the car. But I can endure rollercoasters with friends and family simply because I know it will soon be over. Even if I don't like it, I can endure it if I know it will end. If I know the end is near and certain, I can sustain even through a storm. And I want to remind you that your storm has an end date.
Could it be that we are finding ourselves faltering and falling like the rats in Richter's experiment because we don't remember or believe that the trial will soon be over? Could it be that we aren't truly holding on to hope but instead allowing the exile to end us because we don't believe exile has an end? Could it be that we are feeling all the dips and drops of the journey because we aren't holding on to the truth that rescue is coming? Where is our tenacity? Where is our stick-to-itiveness? Where is our endurance? Where is our hope?
I don't know what you are experiencing. I don't know what exiles God has allowed and what questions it has you asking, but I want to leave you with the word of encouragement God left His people long ago. I want to leave you with the hope that allowed those who were taken from their culture, country, community, and comfort to still hold on to their Christ. We see it in Jeremiah 29. God says, Yes, Babylon is and will be a thing. There will be a season of struggle, trial, difficulty, and disappointment, but it has an end date. And because it has an end date, you can keep building, planting, and growing even in your exile season, believing that prosperity is on the way.
You can move with your head up because you believe that at that divinely appointed end date, God will show up and do all the good things that He has promised. Nothing will be forgotten. Every vision, every dream, everything He spoke will become a reality. I want to encourage someone who is beginning to doubt what God spoke over their life. God knows the plans He has for you. They are for your good and not your evil, and that isn't changing. The God who knows the future is assuring us that disaster isn't our destiny. You aren't crazy. You heard Him right. You saw it clearly. Your mountaintop is just a few feet away. He who shall come, the Savior, will come and will not tarry.
You may feel distant from God now, but He is saying that when you pray, He will listen. If you look wholeheartedly, you will find Him. This is language we see teased throughout the Bible. God told Moses that if the people turned from Him, they’d experience consequences of their lack of connection, but that He would keep calling out for them, and if they turned back, He would be right there ready to restore them. Decades later, Solomon prayed that if and when the people of God turned from God, they could pray to Him and He would hear them and restore their land. God affirmed that He still would hear us, receive us, and restore us, and is reminding us of that promise here. In verse 14, He promises that He will be found by those who seek Him, and He will end our captivity, restore our fortunes, and bring us home. Can you do me a favor and hold on to that hope?
If He said it's coming, then it's on the way. His word shall not return void. I want someone to keep their head up. Yeah, it's not how you envisioned. You are carrying more weight than you expected. God’s voice may even feel distant. But if holding on to hope was the key to receiving your healing, would you? If holding on to hope was the key to making it through, would you?
He knows the plans He has for you. He knows the thoughts He thinks towards you. And this is not an accident. You're alive because there is more. More is still to come, and it is bigger and better than you can imagine. Believe that. Hold on to that. And as Dory said, just keep swimming.
Questions to Consider:
What is hope? Why is it important?
What did God promise you, and how does it look different from your current reality?
How will you work and worship while you wait for your rescue?
