August 2019


“When you search for me, you will find me,

if you seek me with all your heart”

Jeremiah 29.13  (NRSV)

 

This word is about being wholehearted. It is about how we live our lives wherever we may be placed, living and seeking and loving with every part of our being.

Jeremiah had inspiration from the Lord Almighty which he passed on in the form of a letter to all those people that Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile to Babylon. The Lord’s words urged them to settle down into a fruitful life in the place that they were: to build houses and plant gardens and multiply. And to seek peace and prosperity in the city where they found themselves at that time, which was Babylon. And to pray towards this end.

The Lord predicts that having sought him and found him, and called upon Him, that He will listen “…if you seek me with all your heart”, and so they must be ready to call with their whole hearts. He follows with the words “I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity”.

This powerful message is full of God’s merciful love for His people. And it is as relevant for us today as it was for those in exile in Babylon. We must pray for the courage to open and soften our hearts in this time when God’s word appears to be diminished in both the Eastern and Western worlds. In this sense we too are in exile ourselves.

We must keep renewing our love of God as a priority, and pray for this to happen in us, both for ourselves and for all people. And once we can honestly say that we seek Him with our whole hearts, we will find Him in abundance. Hence the chains that bind us to the worldly ways and to the values of today’s material and commercial priorities will begin to loosen and we will be set free.

Alongside this, wherever we find ourselves and in whatever circumstances, we are called to live and remain in His love. Thus we will grow to understand true peace and prosperity, from God’s point of view.

It is in the stillness and receptivity of our contemplative prayer that this process can be enriched.