Lesson Two - Going Deeper Section 5

Jeremiah 29:10-11
This is what the LORD says: "When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Jeremiah 32:38-41
NIV: They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

NLT: They will be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one purpose: to worship me forever, for their own good and for the good of all their descendants. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good for them. I will put a desire in their hearts to worship me, and they will never leave me. I will find joy doing good for them and will faithfully and wholeheartedly replant them in this land.

What do the above verses say about how God wants to treat us?

I noted in the different translations one used the word Fear and one used the word Worship... I admit that for all his talk of Love - the word Fear was always sort of disconcerting. Substituting Worship (which rolls awe and Love and Fear I think together) helped me feel more secure about how He wants to treat us. He wants to do good for us because it brings Him joy. He wants us to have hope and joy ourselves. He wants to serve us because it makes Him happy to see us happy. And knowing that - He wants us to be more like Him... He wants it to be a complete circle of giving - because when we all give of ourselves to bring joy to others it brings joy to ourselves and glorifies Him as without Him none of us could be joyful servants.