10 “For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
As we can see, this call to prayer and promise to answer is found in a very specific context that we do not want to ignore - the impending fall of Jerusalem and the promise of return after seventy years of exile. But even after qualifying these statements within that context, we find truths about calling out to God which transcend that specific situation. First: God does have a plan, and as a good, good God, that plan is for our god. Secondly, God will hear when the sincere heart calls out to Him, seeking His ear, His will and His way. Thirdly, there is hope for the future, in spite of any consequences we may experience due to our poor choices in the past. The point is: never say it's too late to call out to God, even if it seems like there is no way out of our troubles. There is a way through it, and God knows that way, and wants us to go with Him.
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