He has a Plan for Me?

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

Jeremiah 29:11

This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It is amazing that God, the creator of all things, the one who designed the stars and the galaxies, the one who is all-knowing, all-powerful, and ever-present, has a plan for me! How is it that God would care about somebody, like myself, enough to send his son to die for me, and then to design a plan for my life?

This verse was written by the prophet Jeremiah during the Israelite’s exile in Babylon. The children of Israel had sinned, over and over again, and God ultimately punished them for their sin. They turned their backs on God after He kept His promises to them. God brought them out of Egypt, established them in the Promised Land, and made them a great nation. Yet, they did not continue in the ways that God had instructed them, and they worshiped other gods. God repeatedly warned them to turn from their wickedness and to come back to Him, but they did not listen. Finally after hundreds of years, God allowed the Israelites to be taken over by Assyria and later by Babylon. They were taken from the Promised Land as slaves and captives and hauled off to a foreign land. They had to leave their homes, their work, and their lives behind, subjected to the rule of Babylon. Everything that God had provided for them was taken away, and they were again, a people without a land. But God did not forget them; God did not forget His promise to Abraham all those years ago. God told the prophet Jeremiah to send a letter to the elders of Israel and let them know that God was still with them. Tell them that they should settle in the lands that they are in, and establish themselves because God will bless them yet again. God said that after 70 years He will re-visit them, and cause them to return to the Promised Land. God tells them in this beautiful letter that even in their punishment and their desperate circumstances, He loves them, and He has a plan for them. Read the entire passage below from Jeremiah 29:5-14:

Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, declares the Lord.

For thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfareand not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear 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 I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

This is a letter of encouragement to the children of Israel. A letter from God full of love and promise. What a great letter, promise, and verse to hide in our hearts.

In the second half of this passage are a few important promises that should be mentioned. In verse 11, God tells the Israelites that He will give them a future and a hope. He goes on to explain that they will seek him and find Him, when they seek Him with all of their hearts. This is clearly a reference to Jesus. What better hope do we have than the forgiveness of sins and the relationship that Jesus gives us with the Father? Through Jesus’ death, we have a relationship with God that cannot be broken. In John 10:27-30 Jesus tells the Pharisees that no one can take a believer from God. That salvation makes a person one of God’s and nothing in this world can change that.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.

John 10:27 – 30

This letter from God to the children of Israel, recorded in Jeremiah, is a letter of love to a people that had forgotten God and were suffering the consequences of their sin. In the same way today, God loves each of us and has a plan for our lives, a plan to give us a future and a hope. John 3:16 tells us that God sent Jesus to die for all of our sins. Jesus came for each of us. That whosoever, (that means anybody), believes in him might have eternal life. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Jesus died that we might “…have life, and have it [more] abundantly” (John 10:10b). This is a promise for everybody that loves him. The children of Israel were so entrenched in sin that they did not know a way out and did not know God, but God knew them. Today we forget God and God still loves us. Jesus died for all of our sins – for your sin. Jesus wants you to turn to Him, to reject your sin, and to cling to His free gift of salvation.

God has a plan for your life. You are not just here to struggle your way through life. God has a plan to give you a future and a hope. This plan is through Jesus and His free gift of salvation for you. God wants the best for you, and His way is the best.

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Helping you to Hide God's Word in your Heart

Helping you to Hide God's Word in your Heart

Jeremiah 29:11 (ESV)

He has a Plan for Me?