MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES

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Chim'sWRITE
18/3/01

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You Will Laugh AGAIN!
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The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying: "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. Jeremiah 31:3-4

There are times when trouble multiplies around us and continues for so long that we despair of hope . That was Paul’s experience in 2 Cor 1:8&9 when he said " We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death"

Have you ever felt the sentence of death? I have. These were the times when I have seen my cherished hopes dashed and have concluded, because of the prevailing circumstances, that they were gone forever. Life challenges can exert such pressures as to make us conclude that hope is gone.

This was the exact situation of the Israelites at the time Jeremiah was prophesying here in Jeremiah 31. Multiplied and continued misfortunes and troubles had left them with dashed hopes. But God said " I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful." It is the word again that really touches me. For me in this context it is a strong word of hope. Again means that there is still hope. That no matter how dark things may look now in this night of my troubles and despair that the morning is coming. Again means that inspite of the failures of yesterday I can begin all over. Again means that it is possible to recover lost ground . That it is possible to dream again.

Many times we like to wish that life was free of trails and troubles. But God explains here why he leads us through trails and even chastening ""I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness". It is God's everlasting love and commitment to us that makes he willing to allow us experience the growth that trails bring. True, God loves us even with all our shortcomings but he loves us too much to leave us the way we are.

And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: "My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son." Heb.12:5&6

It is because of God's everlasting love for us that makes he willing to let us suffer even though it also hurts him when we suffer. It’s just like what loving parents go through when they have to discipline their children. Though they have no joy in the pains the child suffers, they are willing to discipline him thus because of the character it can produce in the child. Look at result it produced in the Israelites here ;  "They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back". Suffering had produced character - humility, repentance, a clinging to God, a dependence on God in a people that were once rebellious and idolatrous. The key thing God always seeks to produce in our lives through the trails he allows our way is a greater dependence on him. He seeks to purge us of all our false and secret idols so that our worship and hope will be purer.

Beloved, this is the word of God. Troubles can not kill any dream, expectation, vision or hope that God has planted in our hearts .No, it can only purify them, if we co-operate with God. Don’t be afraid, you will hope again! Listen to what God told this people "So there is hope for your future," declares the LORD" Jer. 31:17. Beloved, that is God's word to you this week despite the challenges you may face. Don’t cast away your hope, you will laugh again.

That all the nations may praise Him,
Chimezie Onyebilanma
cross-cultural missionary with CAPRO in Togo.

To learn more about the cross-cultural missionary work of CAPRO Togo send
any email to caprotogo@bibway.com

To learn more about supporting missionaries please visit
www.adopt-a-missionary.org

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