Promises - I Have Plans For You
There is a big difference between platitudes and promises. Platitudes are short, trite, and often meaningless phrases used to make us feel better about something. It sounds like:
Everything will be alright in the end.
It’ll all going to turn out okay.
Time heals all wounds.
Good things come to those who wait.
We’ll laugh about this someday.
Well-meaning people throw these sayings around to encourage, ease tension, or just have something to say when at a loss for words. I’ve heard so many people use Jeremiah 29:11 in this same way.
11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare [peace] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
I hear it used by well-meaning believers and it sounds like this:
“Your life is gonna be great cuz God says (insert Jeremiah 29:11).
“I knew you were going to get the new job, (insert Jeremiah 29:11).
“If you just forge ahead, God will eventually bless you (insert Jeremiah 29:11).
We must understand the context of this promise.
Yes, Jeremiah 29:11 is absolutely a promise of God. And it’s a promise that can be fully trusted. But it’s vitally important that we understand the context of this promise and its full scope. We need to understand who God said it to, when He said it, and why He said it.
4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. 7 But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. 8 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, 9 for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.
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 [peace] 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. (Jer 29:4-14)
This promise was given by an all-knowing God to people who have rejected Him and were now in a very bad spot.
They were exiles; driven out of their land and living in Babylonian captivity due to their disobedience to God. For years and years, God had pleaded with them to stay faithful to Him and they hadn’t. Much like a loving father who doesn’t want to see his child suffer but lets the consequences of a disobedience unfold, they had been overthrown and deported to a foreign land. For many it was a hopelessness and a desperate state of slavery, suffering, and lament.
It’s in this setting that God tells them that even though they are in dire straits they should learn to live faithfully in this situation until He changes things. He asks them to honor Him in the present and leave Him to sort out the future. Despite their faithlessness, God was faithful then and He is still faithful today.
God does not abandon His people!
As John MacArthur puts it, “There is something far greater and eternally significant that we learn from this story in its true context. God does not abandon His people! Despite their sin, God was relentlessly faithful to His covenants regarding Israel’s future and His promised Messiah. Not even Babylonian captivity could prevent His promises from coming to pass.”
None of us like to dwell in unpleasant or difficult situations especially if those situations don’t have a visible resolution on the horizon. We want to get out of those circumstances as quickly as possible. But we can trust that God is doing something in you and through you while you are in this trial. He knows the whole story AND He seeks a beautiful ending to the story. That beautiful climax to the story is Jesus. If we choose Him above all things, pray to Him, seek Him in all situations, He is faithful to deliver us according to riches of His grace. We can be faithful in the present circumstance despite how dark it is or how long it lasts. My job is not to destroy the trials of life or avoid them. My job is to glorify God within the trial and leave the future in His hands. He promises that He has my wellbeing at heart.