Hello Sweet friends,
Today’s Reading … Jeremiah 18-31
One of the fun things that I have found when doing a 90 day read through the Bible is a greater understanding and insight into the “bumper sticker” verses. You are reading along, up to your eyeballs in new information and then, Bam! A verse that you have known your whole life pops up. It is usually one of those Bible verses that is on coffee mugs, t-shirts and bumper stickers. There is a reason for that, it is often these verses that make us feel most hopeful and encouraged. God is a god of hope and so that is a good thing. However, we have established that our relationship with God is not about how we feel. It is about who God is. I do think that when we take verses out of context, we run the risk of twisting and manipulating our own minds to believe that these verses are teaching us what it is that we want to hear more than allowing the Holy Spirit to reveal Truth to our souls through the Word of God.
Jeremiah 29:11 is one such verse, ”’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 a hope and a future.’” This is indeed a beautiful verse filled with encouragement about the days to come. Did you read it any differently today than you did when someone shared it with you in the lines of a greeting card? In isolation, it is easy to make this verse about what I hope will happen in my life; prosperity, and a bright future, preferably free from pain. When we read this verse in the middle of the complete story of the Bible, it changes everything.
God had always had a plan for His people, from the beginning of time. When he called Abraham, He made a covenant. That was His plan. He patiently taught His people to have faith in Him as he told them,”Trust Me.” In his sovereignty, God used Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and then into the Promised Land with Joshua as their captain. The plan did not change, even as life did. God charged His people, “Don’t Give Up!” as they conquered Canaan. God’s plan had always been to have a chosen people, set apart for His glory. That plan would not change even as the earthly kings of Israel led their people away form God. God called to the nation of Israel, “Stop Running and Return to Me!” He held open arms and sent the prophets, Jeremiah included, to summon His children to repent and “Keep God First.” God had always had a plan for His people and that plan would not change.
Now, reading this famous passage of Scripture, we are broken hearted as we watch Judah being taken captive by the Babylonians. The Promised Land is lost and Israelites are going to be in exile for the next 70 years. It is striking, breathtaking even, that this is the point at which God speaks this promise to His people. All seems lost, defeat imminent, the plan aborted.
The sweet truth is that we can see only the temporal while God is working in the eternal. The plan is unchanging and eternity is secure because the plan is in the Hands of an unchanging and eternal God. God is not surprised by the Babylonian exile, He is not panicked by the events of the day. While God would never chose His people to wander and end up in pain, He knows that we are weak and so all of our sins are covered in His plan. Our sin cannot derail the goodness of God.
When we attempt to define “hope,” “prosperity” and “future,” we become panicked because, once again, our perspective is temporal. When we trust that God’s plan is unchanging and infinitely good, then we wait to see how we will teach us to define these desires. We wait for Him to teach our hearts to “hope” for what He hopes for, to pray for the “prosperity” of our Spirit abiding in union with Him and to leave our “future” at His feet.
Just as the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness prepared the Israelites to enter the Promised Land the first time, God would use the next 70 years of Babylonian exile to prepare the hearts of the remnant to enter into the Promised Land a second time. It is all in His unchanging, perfect plan for His people.
To me, Jeremiah 29:11 is so much more beautiful and powerful when the Holy Spirit allows me to understand the whole picture. When God brings my Spirit to acceptance that my perspective is temporal and that He is all good, all powerful, unfailing in every way and that he promises, “’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 a hope and a future.’”
Yes Lord, your plan, your hope, your future. Thank you. Amen.
Love you all,
Kinsee
“so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return empty, but accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it”(Isaiah 55:11)
