What have we preserved within our earthly vessels?
What have we preserved within our earthen vessels that will ensure our
inheritance rights and our final outcome ?
Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the thoughts and plans I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts
and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your
final outcome.
We see in Jeremiah chapter 29 that God's people have been carried away
captive to Babylon from Jerusalem. All the while God is extending mercy and
hope to them, because of his great love for them.
God was ministering to them in their ( deserved ) circumstances that it was
only for a set time and that he was wanting them to have hope for a final
out come that was for good, not evil.
He warns them about listening to false prophets and diviners, tells them to
build houses, plant gardens and enjoy the fruit of them, marry and
multiply, because they are going to be there for a while.
He admonishes them to seek the peace and welfare of the cities in which
they dwell. He assures them of his promise to visit them, that their trials
and captivity are limited to a set time frame, it will come to an end !
God has given them a wonderful Word to hang on to. He is planning their
release from captivity and giving them a promise of returning and
possession of their home land, the promised land.
8: God promises them he will break the bonds and that their oppressors yoke
on them and that they will not always be enslaved.
10: God promises to save them, he is with them to deliver them. He tells
them he is correcting them in measure, but they will not be destroyed! He
says they are being judged and are not guiltless and that they will not go
unpunished.
God deals with his people because he loves them. He judges and corrects
sons and daughters. If not they would continue in their destructive sins
and perish. 15: Here God asks them Why do you cry out when your pain is the
result of your sins ? Without God's help their situation is incurable and
deadly. So God intervenes.17: Yet God goes on to say." I will restore
health to you, and I will heal your wounds.
31: 1 At that time, says the Lord, will I be the God of all the families of
Israel, and they will be my people.
12 God tells them they will be redeemed, they shall be radiant with joy
over the goodness of the Lord. Their lives will be like a watered garden
and they shall not sorrow any more. God is going to turn their mourning
into joy !!!! He will satisfy their lives with his goodness.
32:41 God tells them he will rejoice over them to do them good and will
plant them in the land and in truth with his whole heart and whole being.
:42 For thus says the lord, As I brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them!
:44 For men shall buy fields for money and sign deeds, seal them, call for
them selves witnesses etc. because he is going to release them into total
restoration.
Restoration
33:6 God promises that in the restored Jerusalem he will lay upon it
health and healing, and I will cure them and reveal to them the abundance
of peace( prosperity, security, stability, and truth.) He will cleanse
them, forgive them, enrich their lives with good!
In the midst of their circumstances
32: In this chapter the Word of the lord comes to Jeremiah while
Jerusalem is being besieged by the army of Babylon. Jeremiah is locked away
and being questioned about his prophesying.
He tells of God telling him to buy a field FOR HIM SELF, FOR THE RIGHT OF
INHERITANCE IS HIS !
Here they are in the worse crisis, terrible circumstances and going into
captivity and yet God says something so strange and out of place..go buy a
field for your self ! So Jeremiah does what the Word of the Lord says and
buys the field, pays money for it ( pays the price ) signed the deed,
called witnesses etc.
Preserve your deed, your inheritance !
32: 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the god of Israel: " Take these
deeds, both this purchase deed, which is sealed, and this unsealed deed and
put them in an earthen vessel TO BE PRESERVED."
The Israelites had been given a land that was promised, a land that
flowed with milk and honey, they entered, took possession of this promised
land, yet they would not obey God's voice. There fore all this calamity
came upon them.
:25 Jeremiah says, " Yet, Oh Lord God, you said to me " " Buy this field
even though it was given into the hands of the Chaladeans.
:27 God responds," Is there any thing too hard for me ? " God would ask us
the same thing today, " Is there any thing too hard for me ? " Have you
taken hold of my Word and promises concerning your situation ? Have you
bought the land I have given you, sealed it in your heart and preserved it
for a time of need ?
God tells us in so many ways to do the same thing, regardless of
appearances or circumstances, what have we redeemed that is part of our
inheritance, preserved within our earthen vessels to draw hope from ? What
of His Word and His promises have we stored up. Leaned upon, rested in?
When the trials come, sickness comes, what will we have preserved to assure
us of God's promises and keeping ?
Matt.13: 44 The Kingdom of heaven is like something precious buried in a
field, which a man found and hid again ( are we hiding the precious ?) Then
he went in his joy and sells all that he has to buy the field.
:45 Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like a man who is a dealer in search of
fine and precious pearls.
:46 Who upon finding a single pearl of great price, went and sold all he
had and bought it.
2 Cor. 4:7
We have this treasure (preserved) in earthen vessels
We possess this precious treasure ( The Gospel.God's Word) in frail ,
human vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the
power may be shown to be from God and not ourselves.
:10 All the pain and sufferings we may go through is so the resurrection
life of Jesus may be shown forth by and through our lives and bodies.
:13 Yet, we have the same spirit of faith as he who wrote, I have believed
therefore I have spoken. Ps.116:10
:16 Therefore , do not be discouraged, exhausted, wearied out from fear.
Our inner self is being progressively renewed day by day.
:17 For our light, momentary affliction, this slight distress of the
passing hour is ever more and abundantly preparing and producing and
achieving for us an everlasting weight of glory, beyond measure,
excessively surpassing all comparisons and all calculations, a vast and
transcending glory and blessedness that shall never cease.
:18 Because, we consider and look not at the things which are seen or
apparent, but look to the unseen; for the things which are seen are
temporal, brief, or fleeting, but the things invisable are deathless and
everlasting.
When the rubber hits the road , so to speak in crisis circumstances, what
have you stored up, preserved within you that you can draw upon as precious
promises of God even when things look really bad ?
Are there things preserved within your earthen vessels ahead of time to
draw hope from and faith and truth from ?
God's Word is truth and reality, no matter what the situation, what it
looks like or feels like.
Buy the field of promises and hope, pay the price, seal it within your
heart for what ever the need might arise. Have it well preserved within .
We were bought with a price, sealed by His Holy Spirit, preserved and
kept by God, given promises of total salvation in every area of our life.
We need to bury these truths within our earthen vessels for times of
need.for they will come. Why would God give us these promises if there
would be no need for them ?
Preserve them to assure our selves that he has plans and thoughts for good
towards us. Health, prosperity , total redemption and wholeness in every
are of our lives.....
The field was bought before it was to be possessed and used. The purchased
deed before it was needed. We need to do the same.
We store up God's Word and precious promises and draw from them, from " our
own preservation place "when needed. They must be there first. Sell out to
doubt and unbelief, buy the field of promises, you have the right to
inherit it all !
Betty Nelms
