Good morning,
For I know the plans I have for you.
Even though the day for voting for a president has come and gone almost three weeks ago, we are still surrounded by all sorts of stories and possibilities about who will be our next president. Even though it seems clear who will be the next president, there are people who are not satisfied with the way things have been done. Back in Jeremiah’s day God had kept his promise to the rebellious people of Judah that they would be conquered and that many of their people would end up in exile in Babylon. God had earlier used Jeremiah to warn them that they would be captives for the next 70 years. Now there were false prophets and fortune-tellers who were telling the captives that all of this misfortune would soon be reversed and they would soon be home again in Judah. These false liars were doing their best to get God’s people to try to look back to the good old days instead of accepting God’s will for what he knew would be best for them. God again used Jeremiah to tell them, You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised, and I will bring you home again.(Jer.29:10)
God’s enemies were doing their best to get God’s people to look backward for the comfort they had when they were living in a rebellious country that had forgotten how to love and obey their God. The Enemy wanted these who were wonderfully saved from death to want what they thought was best instead of what God knew would be best for them. God knew exactly what he was doing and so he said, For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.(v.11) These people were not living with a disaster. They were told to look ahead, for what was considered a normal life time, for God to do something that would bring a wonderful outcome. What God was telling them was that, In those days when you pray, I will listen.(v.12) All their prayers that God would save them from their enemies had not done what they expected. God was listening, but that wasn’t God’s plan. He also made another promise when he said, If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.(v.13) What they were being tempted to do was to get back to their old false security, when what God wanted for them was a people who would be wholehearted in their relationship with him. They would know how to pray in faith, listen for directions, and be wholehearted in their walk with God. Could it be that God is up to the same things for his people today?
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 In those days when you pray, I will listen. 13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
Roy Wisner
