BV: Jeremiah 29:11

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 hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

This is one of those verses that is quoted a lot. We like to keep it close to us because it’s so reassuring. When the world around us gets chaotic and seemingly out of control we can look at this verse and be reminded that God has a plan. The world is not out of control – at least not to Him. But even so I have been confused by the part of the verse that says God has “plans to prosper us and not to harm us”. Although it sounds good, I still face times when the opposite is true. To say that we will never experience pain is clearly not the case (because who among us hasn’t). Maybe this verse speaks to how God views our lives in their totality as opposed to our own daily observations and scrutiny.

Think of it like this: a train traveling through a mountainous region will have uphill moments (the “I don’t have enough strength for this.” moments) and its downhill moments (the “Wheee!! – This is fun! Life is good!” moments). Like the train’s journey, our journey through life isn’t always easy but God’s “plan” is about getting us to our destination. When we get there, we can look back at our journey and see that overall it was prosperous and no harm was truly done. Where we end our journey is more important to God than the bumps and bruises along the way.

It’s likely Abraham, when he left everything he knew simply because God said “Go”, had to reassure himself along his journey that God had a plan. Joseph had dreams of authority but certainly must have questioned God’s plan when he was sold into slavery and later thrown into prison. These Biblical examples show real men who had their uphill moments and yet the verse still rang true for them. They persevered because God gave them hope and a future. In the end they could see their lives in totality were richly blessed.

Encouragement of the Day: Cling to the hope you have in Jesus and know that God does have a plan. He does want you to be richly blessed. If you are in an “uphill” moment, have hope in knowing the “downhill” can’t be far ahead.

Question of the day: How have you maintained your hope through the “uphill” moments?