.png)
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:11-13 NKJV
I have found myself reflecting on this passage and the words “a future and a hope”, which have been resonating in my heart. I think we often turn to this verse when we are in trials as a reminder of God’s love toward us but I find myself viewing it differently right now. There is no particular trial happening in my life. In fact overall life is pretty blessed so I find myself wondering what God wants to say to me through this passage right now.
As I have prayed I am reminded that it isn’t what I see in my life that matters it is what He sees. This passage has been telling me that just because life seems to be clipping along well that He has a plan that may look different. The good news is that whatever His thoughts are toward me they are for a future and a hope.
Have you ever felt like God said something to you that never seemed to come to pass? We all probably have words, dreams and hopes that as they seemingly fail to come to fruition we set aside and even dismiss thinking that we must have heard wrong. But He has a future and a hope for us and though we may have dismissed these things He never does.
I believe God is challenging us to revisit those things, to find Him in the midst of them and to trust that He has a future and a hope that includes those words. It’s like unpacking a box that has been hidden away in a closet or basement. God wants us to take it out dust off the contents and set them out so we can see His vision for those things that He spoke to us and to engage with the future and hope He has for us.