^{Jer 29:11}‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.¹²‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.¹³‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.¹⁴‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’

How often have we heard this verse, and thought “it will soon be over,” or “all I have to do is seek the LORD, and He will restore me now?”  Let us not forget the lead in to this section: “When the seventy years have been completed…”  SEVENTY YEARS??  Most of the Israelites that were sent into captivity knew that they would never see the restoration of Israel.  However, they were to be content knowing that their God would restore the nation for their children and grandchildren.  They were to seek and pray for the welfare of the city of their captors, the brutal Babylonians, since that was where they were to live during their exile.  The primary reason that God’s prophets said the Israelites were sent to Babylon was because of their idolatry.  History tells us that Israel never had this problem again after their captivity.  The correction of the LORD is far beyond our understanding, and 70 years is but a moment in the span of history, but look what God used it to accomplish!  Are you going through a rough time?  Pray to the LORD that He would help you endure and even embrace the trials you face.  Do not accept false prophesies that may say your trials should have ended already.  He has  a blessed future for you! Continue to seek Him with all your heart, and you will find him.  In the meantime, He will use it to teach you, and in His time you will be restored.  “…In the latter days you will understand this.”  Praise be to the God of Restoration.