Jeremiah 29:11-14 (Amplified Bible)
11) For I know the thoughts and plans that 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.
12) Then you will call upon Me, and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear and heed you.
13) Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14) I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will release you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and all the places to which I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I caused you to be carried away captive.
I remember when I was young, we lived in a multi generational home. At a time my grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins lived under the same roof with us. It was interesting in so many different ways, but it also taught me to appreciate the value of my surroundings, and how God worked within them. My Grandma James, loved fish, for as long as I can remember she had fish, as pets. She would often make us help clean the fish tank, which was a chore and an adventure all rolled into one task. Catching the fish to transport them to a container while we cleaned the tank was always challenging. The fish never wanted to leave their home and they would swim fast to try to escape the net. On occasion, a fish would try to get away by trying to flip or jump out of the net. On that rare occasion when an escape was attempted and it was almost successful one of the fish would hit the floor. As he found himself no longer within the safety of his watery home and trying to find away to gasp for air in an environment strange to his habitat, he would flop and flip around. Visibly uncomfortable and disturbed by his new environment, he would often find himself flopping and flipping at a rate that made it hard to catch him and bring them to safety. We would find ourselves chasing the little fish or trying to wait until it was not squirming and flopping about so much in order for us to safely transport it to a liquid habitat that it would be safe in until his home was again ready for habitation.
How often are we finding ourselves being moved, transported or cleaned out and we are in resistance to what God is trying to do in us, and we jump or try to run and find ourselves flapping about uncontrollably because we are out of the will of God and out of the safety of His care. If we look at our lives, and if we are honest with ourselves, many of us would have to admit we are there right now or have just allowed God to place us in the net for transport. The only thing consistent in life is change, so why do we find it so hard to accept change, and trust God to keep us safe during the transition? Probably because that would mean that we would have to give up the control of our situation and our lives to God and rest in the net of His will and the container of His love and safety. It is when we view our lives as we know it being upset, that we no longer are acceptance with joy, we become fighting mad, instead of hallelujah glad. We do not want to endure the move, the change or the clean up, we would rather stay in that dirty tank and live the way we want, rather than to allow God to fix what very well may be killing us or making us sick.
Some times the unrest of movement and the discomfort of transition makes us become the fish out of water, because we choose to fight instead of submit. If only we could see that the net is for our safety and the movement may be for our betterment, we would learn not to jump, flip or flop, we would stay still and let God have His way and work it out for us. We would welcome the net and realize it's purpose and go knowing God has us and will keep us safely in His care. He has a plan for us and it is to give us the best that His Sons blood could buy...Don't be a fish out of water, but instead enjoy the move and the love of God as He takes you where he needs you to be!
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