“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ~ Jeremiah 29:11
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most beloved passages of Scripture in all of the Old Testament. And for good reason! Don’t we take comfort in knowing that God has plans for us, and that His plans involve prosperity, peace, and hope?
But how easy it is for us to forget all about the verse prior.
This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.”
Seventy years… that requires patience and trust!
It’s only natural to want to know every last detail of God’s plan for us. But He created us, and as our Creator He knows that there’s enormous value in giving us bitesize samples instead of mouthfuls of the bigger picture.
A close friend of mine recently told me, “To be honest, had my wife and I known ahead of time everything that was going to be required of us when we looked into adopting our son, I’m not sure we would’ve gone through with it. It’s taken a lot of work, a lot of patience, and an incredible amount of trust in God. A lot more than we ever could’ve imagined. But it has been worth everything that has been required of us. We couldn’t imagine our life without him today.”
My friend didn’t know what to expect. He and his wife went into this without anticipating all the what-ifs. And in the end, he was thankful that they didn’t. Because had they known, they would’ve missed out on one of the greatest blessings in their lives.
They didn’t have all the answers. They didn’t even know all of the questions. But they trusted God to lead them through the process. And as a result, a child who desperately needed a loving family has been blessed because two wonderful people didn’t need to know all of the how’s, when’s, where’s, what’s and why’s.
All they did was trust the plan that God had for them.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.“
May God speak these faithful words into the hearts of every child that needs a loving family today. Amen.
Former Blackout Artist 