{"id":1499,"date":"2011-08-27T05:36:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-27T09:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/?p=1499"},"modified":"2011-08-25T17:05:12","modified_gmt":"2011-08-25T21:05:12","slug":"understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html","title":{"rendered":"Understanding the Prophets–Reaching the heart of God"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After months of searching for a clear passage to release me from my careless and unforgiving attitude, I\u00a0uncovered the heart of the message delivered by the Prophets.\u00a0 I had formerly seen God’s unbending justice.\u00a0 Now I was searching for his lovingkindness and release.<\/p>\n

When I realized that Jeremiah also sought God’s healing, my spirit soured with unspeakable joy as I read,<\/p>\n

\u00a0When 70 years <\/em>(the years of punishment) have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfil my good word for you, to bring you back to this place.\u00a0 ‘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. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to Me and I will listen to you.\u00a0 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.\u00a0 And I will be found by you.’<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I remember crying for days.\u00a0 The prophetic word for me became healing and restoration.\u00a0 Again and again, God assured me that He loved me more than life.\u00a0 He cared for my smallest hurt.\u00a0 He was touched by my fear, lack of trust and feelings of betrayal.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>For the next year, I lived with Jeremiah.\u00a0 All my reading and\u00a0study related not only to the sinful condition Jeremiah’s words revealed; but the assurance of pardon and the promise of restoration which God repeated to my heart through the prophetic message.\u00a0 Slowly, I realized that my understanding of the justice the prophets proclaimed was not wrong.\u00a0 It was merely incomplete.<\/p>\n

We don’t–we can’t–eradicate the message that God hates sin.\u00a0 Yet, far more important to me, I saw that I can’t ignore the truth that God is passionately, uncompromisingly, unfailingly in love with me, The Sinner.\u00a0 His desparte attempts to reconcile me to Himself ended in His death–not mine–on the cross.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After months of searching for a clear passage to release me from my careless and unforgiving attitude, I\u00a0uncovered the heart of the message delivered by the Prophets.\u00a0 I had formerly seen God’s unbending justice.\u00a0 Now I was searching for his lovingkindness and release. When I realized that Jeremiah also sought God’s healing, my spirit soured…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":387,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3,40,186,49,215,258,212,4,41],"tags":[21,688,18,699,715,701,57,692,6],"class_list":["post-1499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-developmental-disabilities","category-faith","category-hope","category-inspiration","category-love","category-old-testament-prophets","category-repentance","category-simple-truths","category-spirituality","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-discipleship","tag-faith","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-prayer","tag-religion","tag-simple-scriptural-truths"],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding the Prophets-Reaching the heart of God - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding the Prophets-Reaching the heart of God - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"After months of searching for a clear passage to release me from my careless and unforgiving attitude, I\u00a0uncovered the heart of the message delivered by the Prophets.\u00a0 I had formerly seen God’s unbending justice.\u00a0 Now I was searching for his lovingkindness and release. When I realized that Jeremiah also sought God’s healing, my spirit soured…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-08-27T09:36:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-08-25T21:05:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/sandals21.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Linda G. Howard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Understanding the Prophets-Reaching the heart of God - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Understanding the Prophets-Reaching the heart of God - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","og_description":"After months of searching for a clear passage to release me from my careless and unforgiving attitude, I\u00a0uncovered the heart of the message delivered by the Prophets.\u00a0 I had formerly seen God’s unbending justice.\u00a0 Now I was searching for his lovingkindness and release. When I realized that Jeremiah also sought God’s healing, my spirit soured…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html","og_site_name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","article_published_time":"2011-08-27T09:36:44+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-08-25T21:05:12+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/sandals21.jpg"}],"author":"Linda G. Howard","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html","name":"Understanding the Prophets-Reaching the heart of God - A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/sandals21.jpg","datePublished":"2011-08-27T09:36:44+00:00","dateModified":"2011-08-25T21:05:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/sandals21.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/simplelife\/files\/2011\/08\/sandals21.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/2011\/08\/understanding-the-prophets-reaching-the-heart-of-god.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Understanding the Prophets–Reaching the heart of God"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/","name":"A Simple Life, a Childlike Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Linda Howard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/#\/schema\/person\/a10d3530d8432a656d648135fe6da739","name":"Linda G. Howard","description":"Linda G. Howard is the best-selling and award-winning author of four books, including MOTHERS ARE PEOPLE, TOO and THE SECRET LIFE OF A HOUSEWIFE. Currently, she serves as area director of The Special Gathering, a ministry within the mentally challenged community. Additionally, she is the co-publisher and editor of CONNECTING POINT, the ministry newsletter. Her husband is a retired aerospace technologist who worked for NASA. They have three children and four grandchildren.","sameAs":["http:\/\/specialgathering.wordpress.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/author\/lhoward"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/387"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1499"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1512,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1499\/revisions\/1512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/simplelife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}