A Future And A Hope!
Jeremiah 29:11 NASB
For I know the plans that I have for you,’declares the Lord,’ plans for welfare and not calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 KJV
For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.
The Hebrew word for plans actually means, purpose. destiny, invention, design.
So the KJV comes closer to a true definition of the passage. Dr. Mark Chironna says this, “God doesn’t have a plan for you, rather He has a purpose/destiny for you and He will implement as many plans necessary to get you to your purpose/destiny”. He is a good God and He will get us to our purpose. He will help us be who we are meant to be.
Jeremiah, in this passage, is speaking to Israel who, because of idolatry, have been taken into captivity to Babylon. God’s people are not emotionally in a good place and Jeremiah is telling them, “I need you to make a shift in your perspective”. Have you forgotten that God brought you into the Promised land? Is He not capable of taking you back? He wants you to put down your pride and humble yourself and admit that He actually knows all the plans to get you back. Can you humble yourselves to believe that He is a good God and that the situation you are in is not a punishment from God.
Israel is in bondage and Jeremiah is telling them that God wants them to make a shift. Rather than looking at their situation as a punishment…God has in fact commissioned them and has sent them there for a purpose.
When we fully understand this passage our perspective on the situations we are in, our jobs, finances relationships, will change.
Rather than saying, “this job I have right now is my punishment”, or “my finances are not good and they will never be good”, He wants us to say that I have been commissioned and was sent to this job for a purpose. My finances are a mess but that is not the purpose/destiny God has for me.
God is good…not just on Sunday. He has an immeasurable number of ways of getting us to our purpose, our destiny. We comprehend only but a couple.
May the Lord bless you and may we be humble enough to allow Him to get us to our Promised Land where we can be who we were always meant to be.
