Plans to Give You a Hope and a Future

Jeremiah 29:10-14  "This is what the Lord says: 'when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  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.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back from captivity.  I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,' declares the Lord, 'and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.'"

Jeremiah 29:11 has become a very well known verse, especially around the time that you get into your senior year of high school.  Everyone comes up to you and says 'so, where are you going to school and what do you want to do with your life?'  Frankly, you just want to shout from the rooftop 'I DON'T KNOW!!!!!  PROBABLY NOWHERE AND NOTHING IF I HEAR THAT QUESTION ONE MORE TIME!'  I would not be surprised if somewhere down the road I have a friend confront me about my behavior during my senior year of high school, and say '...remember when you did...'  The reason I am telling you all this is to identify with you.  Yes, God says that He knows the plans He has for us, promises to prosper us and not to harm us, but at times we just think God forgets...  How could the God of the universe remember who I am.  There are so many other problems going on in this world, and the lives of others, how could He have time to tell me what college I am supposed to go to?  Confession: He is trying to tell you.  You just aren't listening.  The biggest part of my testimony was when I was able to see the Glory and Goodness of our God.  I told God, open the doors you want open for me, and shut the ones you don't want me to go through.  I needed a simple concise answer from God.  The sermon at youth group that same night was learning to be still... and listen...  I wish I could make an audio of this for you because I would insert a dramatic three second pause (which I'm learning about in my speech class ;) ), but in all seriousness, you really have to learn when to tone-down, pipe-down, quit talking, quit thinking, and listen to God's voice.  I can here you right now 'Chaleigh, I try to listen but I don't know how.'  Well, thank you for being honest.  I didn't know how either.  It was a learning process for me, and I had many struggles along the way.  The biggest ways that God communicates with us is through prayer and through His word, but there are other ways to connect too.  I learned that the biggest way that I make a connection with God is through worship, and fully surrendering my heart to Him through acts of obedience.

You might be wondering why I underlined a part of the verse up at the top, I want to discuss this a little bit too.  As Jeremiah 29:11 becomes so popular, which is a good thing, we have a tendency to forget about the rest of the verse.  To me, this part, verse 12-14, is amazingly important.  "Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you..."  It starts off with 'then' this usually means that there is something that you must do after you receive your blessing.  God is blessing us by giving us hope for our future, then... we must call upon His name and pray to Him, then He will listen.  Seek him whole heartedly, then you will find Him.  The word 'then' is killing me today.  Like, seriously guys!  We need to clean our room then we can have a cookie.  Complete your entire work shift then you'll get your paycheck.  These are examples of the order of operation.  Funny thing is, if you notice, we don't have to do anything on the first part.  Let me show you what I mean.

"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.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you."

We do not have to do anything here, all we have to do is follow His command here.

I hope this inspires you as much as it did me.

Confessions,
Chaleigh