Jeremiah 29-32: Don’t you just love knowing that God has a purpose and plan for your life. I also love that His purpose is for my welfare not to harm me. He longs to give me a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare Or peace and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
I have heard this verse quoted many times and even quoted it myself a lot. When you place this verse in the context of where it is in the scripture it gives it even more emphasis. God’s people had gone through a time of correction. Their “time out” was to last 70 years. It was their disobedience that had cause them to stay in time out and now they were at the beginning of their discipline. They had been taken captive to Babylon and were now experiencing a new normal. Jeremiah is giving them a word from the Lord that let them know though the time was to be a lengthy stay, they were to marry, work hard, make a life for themselves there. They were to raise their children and find a new normal. In it they were to remember God and know that even in a foreign time and place He was still with them. They were to seek Him with all of their hearts.
Jeremiah 29:12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
God was already planning to restore them to Jerusalem, but in the meanwhile they were to engage in relationship with Him no matter where they were physically. What a great word to us right now. God has not forgotten us. He has a plan and purpose for us. He expects us to live but in our living to seek Him with our whole heart. No choosing to play in the world and seek Him when you are in trouble. He gets your whole heart. Oh friend, allow Him to restore you even if it takes a while and learn to truly live giving Him your whole heart!