Rebuilding the Ruins

Hi, and welcome to today's encouragement from the Our Daily Bread devotional. Today's reading, titled Rebuilding the Ruins, was written by Amy Boucher-Pye. At 17, Dwayne had to leave his family's home in Meninburg, a part of Cape Town, South Africa, because of his stealing and addiction to heroin. He didn't go far, building a shack of corrugated metal in his mother's backyard, which soon became known as the casino, a place to use drugs. When he was 19, however, Dwayne came to saving faith in Jesus. His journey off drugs was long and exhausting, but he got clean with God's help and with the support of friends who were believers in Jesus. And ten years after Dwayne built the casino, he and others turned the hut into a house church. What was once a dark and foreboding place now is a place of worship and prayer. The leaders of this church looked to Jeremiah 33 for how God can bring healing and restoration to people and places, as he's done with Dwayne and the former casino. The prophet Jeremiah spoke to God's people in captivity, saying that although the city would not be spared, yet God would heal his people and would rebuild them, cleansing them from their sin.

Then the city would bring him joy, renown, and honor. When we're tempted to despair over the sin that brings heartbreak and brokenness, let's continue to pray that God will bring healing and hope, even as he's done, in a backyard in Meninburg. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 33, verses 6 through 11. Nevertheless, I will bring health and healing to it. I will heal my people and will let them enjoy abundant peace and security. I will bring Judah and Israel back from captivity and will rebuild them as they were before. I will cleanse them from all the sin they have committed against me, and I will forgive all their sins of rebellion against me. Then this city will bring me renown, joy, and praise and honor before all nations on earth that hear of all the good things I do for it. And they will be in awe and will tremble at the abundant prosperity and peace I provide for it. This is what the Lord says, You say about this place, it is a desolate waste without people or animals. Yet in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted, inhabited by neither people nor animals, there will be heard once more the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the Lord, saying, Give thanks to the Lord Almighty, for the Lord is good.

His love endures forever. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before, says the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the encouraging words of Jeremiah that God will bring healing and hope to our land. Everywhere we look we see suffering, fighting, and division among us and we long for your return. But we are filled with hope because we know you are good and your love endures forever. Continue to work in us that we may share your saving love with others. Thank you, Father. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. God's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.