Have you ever had that moment where you hear a quote or a verse and wonder what the context is? One of my favorite verses and the verse that we dedicated our daughter with is one of those verses that is great on its own, but takes on a whole new meaning when you read it in context.
Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future."
Wow! It is just so powerful! The problem I have is that people use it to mean that they will get rich and have a great future. We use the word prosper in our materialistic terms and forget that God's view of prosperous is quite different than ours.
If you continue reading the next few verses, it gives a much better perspective of what that verse means.
Jeremiah 29:12-14 "Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to 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 will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the Lord, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."
In verse 14, the Lord says He would bring back the His people from where he had banished them. He sent them to the places they wanted to return from. These verses are referring to the captivity of the Israelites after they had lost sight of following the Lord and been caught up in the world. They were distracted by the things around them and the Lord would allow them to be conquered and taken into captivity. They then repented and the Lord restored them to their lands.
We can experience the same thing as followers of Christ. We can be caught up with the world and lose sight of Christ. When we run into hard times it is the opportunity to refocus on seeking Christ with our whole heart. We don't like to think that God may have brought us to a point of exile or allowed us to temporarily fall captive to the world. He promises that if we seek Him with everything, we will find Him and He will bring us back.
I know that it can take the hardest moments of our lives when we feel the farthest from God to help us realize that we need to seek Him with fervor and passion. That search will lead to Him and the hope and future He has planned specifically for us.
