Hope in Despair

There's a great verse in Jeremiah 29 that a lot of people have memorized.

11 "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."

We recite this verse in times of difficulty, when things are just going south for us. And that's a good thing, for it is a wonderful promise from God.

But I thought it would be instructive to put a little context around when God said this through the prophet Jeremiah. It's in a letter Jeremiah sent to the exiles that God had sent from Israel to Babylon. He was trying to tell them to set down roots in Babylon, have kids, open businesses, and even pray for the welfare of the cities they were in.

The people were having a hard time doing that in part because other "prophets" told them that God would break the back of Babylon and return them to the land. In fact wasn't true at all. God was disciplining the people for their abandoning their relationship with him. At one point he calls their wound "incurable."

30:11 "I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished."

God is telling his people to let the discipline happen and learn that only by relying on God can their "wound" be healed.

17 "For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the Lord."

So when you find yourself in a tough jam, don't fight it, but ask God to reveal what he is doing in the situation, or at least just trust that he is working, that in him, and through a relationship with him, you can find hope and a future and healing.

Pastor Tom