Until Then

There are two principles that come from these verse.

Principle: listen to God because he is more concerned with obedience than comfort. If God wanted these people to be comfortable he would never have allowed them to spend 70 years in Babylon. In his book The Purpose Driven Life, Rick Warren shares a similar truth. He says “God’s ultimate goal for your life on earth is not comfort, but character development.” (p. 173) Sometimes God allows us to spend time in a desert to build character and to test our obedience.

When Jesus went to the cross he displayed perfect obedience to the will of God. Listen to what the Bible says about this principle. “Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, takig the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:6-8 NIV)

The second principle in these verses is: listen to God because he knows your situation. Look at verses 11-12. “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.” (NIV)

What is providence? Providence comes from the words, "Pro" which means "before;" and "Video" which means "to see." Therefore, providence means "to see before." This means that God sees beforehand and plans accordingly.

(Contributed to Sermon Central by Dave McFadden)

Illustration: Last week there was an inspiring story in the Alabama Baptist (week of June 15th.; p. 15) about a young man named Daniel Ritchie. Daniel Ritchie was born without arms. The article said Daniel did not allow his disability to slow him down. On May 23rd. he graduated from Southeastern College in Wake Forest, NC with a 3.3 grade point average. Daniel was called into the ministry at the age of 16. Daniel said that when he accepted Jesus Christ, Jesus changed his life and helped him to gain confidence as a person. Daniel tells people God had a purpose in making him this way. Daniel says “If God has gotten me this far in my life no matter what you have to face—whether it be a family member dying of cancer, or a sick child, or tough financial times or whatever---even though things might not go as we would have planned, God is still sovereign and God is still Lord over that.” Daniel has been productive where he found himself and is not waiting "until then".