Jeremiah 29:11 AMPC
[11] For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.
It is important to give the verse above the right context, so that its message can be fully appreciated. At the time the verse above was penned down by Jeremiah, things had really gone bad for Judah. Here were a people loved and chosen by God to be His own people, but sin had changed the landscape for the whole land. These people had consistently rebelled against God, and reject His warnings about their bad conduct. Of course, God cannot be mocked and He applied the consequences of their actions, as He had made abundantly clear to them. Nations that had previously feared Judah were now coming for a piece of the action. People who could not face Judah before were now emboldened and you could say empowered by God to conquer His people and make them slaves. That is what sin does: reduces a subject to nothing. There is no height from which unconfessed sin will not drag you down from.
Check out the categories of people who were taken captive: elders, priests, prophets, the king himself, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen and the smiths. If the king, his family and army had been taken captive, what kind of people would have been left in the land? Only the poorest of the land, the destitute and the helpless; people who could not put up a fight if another enemy was to show up. That is what rebellion against God does to you: it will take all the precious things that you think you have, and leave you with nothing of value. Whatever good you thought you had will be made redundant. This is where Judah was at the time this letter by Jeremiah was received by those in exile. Thank God the story did not end on that note, or Judah would have been completely forgotten. This is where the nature of God holds both a word of warning and caution to all of us.
It is that nature of God that holds hope for all of us. Reflect on the verse above: God was still speaking to, and interested in the welfare of people who had rejected Him. He would not just let them go. How do you inspire hope in the hearts of people who have given up on hope? How do you encourage someone who has given up on life? One strong case to be made for how God works will be the volume of testimonies about God's acts in the past. Critically consider your life up to this point, and you will see several instances where God showed up, not because you were the best, but because His mercy spoke. No one is so far gone that s/he is beyond God's grace. He can restore; He can revive; He can replace; He can repair. What He seeks is a heart that is set on Him; a heart that knows s/he can do nothing without Him. What steps do you need to take to return to God? He waits for you and me, and He will definitely show Himself strong in the lives of all who surrender to Him. Would you? God's time of favour is here.
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