"For  I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future.

Hope. And a future.

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you.

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

I will be found by you and will bring you back from captivity.

I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

The struggle to ask for help is consistent with the struggle to ask for forgiveness.

We are ashamed to admit we are not enough to do it on our own.

We try.

We fail.

We then have to admit to God and to our egos that now there are 2 wrongs:

the belief that we can without God, and what that has led us to do.
Then we will call with burdens and mistakes and shames and all the wrongs
that were meant to be avoided
and He will hear every last one.

It will take my whole heart to find Him, not a dejected, stagnant piece.

And when my heart finally surrenders itself entirely:

He has already promised to listen—what we need is irrelevant.

He has already promised to rescue—our condition could not keep Him from bringing us back.

He has already promised hope and a future--Not an empty promise of someday, and not just enough to satisfy now.

We will have the lasting peace that tomorrow is already blessed.

We will have security from the inconsistency of our captors.

We will have grace and rest and an abundance of love.