This is what the Lord says: “You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again. For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”Jeremiah 29:10-14
Dear God, 70 years, huh? Well, I guess that’s a start. 😉

Of course, I am kidding. The world is yours. I am yours. Everyone is yours. Everything is yours. I think the passage that is probably better applied to our individual lives, as opposed to this one that is addressed to a nation, is Romans 8:28 when Paul talks about you working for the good of all of those who love you. But even there “good” is vague. There were decisions my wife and I made for our children that they didn’t like that we did for their good. And the. There is the other thing you have to consider–what is for my good vs the good of others? You have a plan for my life and it might be different than someone else’s life. 

Father, help me to joyfully submit to the plan you have for me, worship you thoroughly, and be sensitive to the needs you put around me so that I might have as much impact in the world as you need me to have. And I pray that the plans you have for our nation are the same as what you had for Israel except I hope it doesn’t take 70 years for your favor to return. 

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen