“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 hope and a future. Then you will call upon 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. (Jeremiah 29:11-13)
This Scripture verse is a tremendous promise we all know well and quote frequently. I want to take a closer look at it as we approach the New Year. This is a declaration of Almighty God over you and me that He has great plans for us. According to the word of the Lord to Jeremiah, these plans were made for us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb. (Jeremiah 1:5) Pretty awesome! God goes on to say that these plans will give us hope. How can God’s plans give us hope? Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for.” Hope is an expectation of something. In order to have hope, we need to know what God’s plans are for us.
I Corinthians 2:9-10 says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him, but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.” God’s desire is to reveal to us by His Spirit those awesome plans He has for us that will give us hope and establish our future. This revelation of God’s plan can come through Scripture, the Spirit speaking in a quit voice to our spirit, and through prophetic word. The key to coming into this revelation is to begin to put our hope and our future in God’s hands. Our hope and future cannot be in our education, job, ministry, family, government, etc. In these uncertain times we need to transfer our hope and faith totally to God. When we do, we begin to ask God what He wants us to do. We are no longer swayed by circumstances or people because our hope is in God.
When our focus is on God and we are really willing to follow His way, an amazing thing begins to happen; God begins to reveal by His Spirit these awesome plans He has for us that we could not even conceive in our own minds. These unimaginable plans are conceived in the mind of God and can only be fulfilled by God. That brings us to the second half of our Scripture in Jeremiah. Notice the word “then” which connects the last half of the Scripture portion to the first half.
After we come into the revelation of God’s plan and future, God says “then you will call upon me,…I will listen to you,…and be found by you.” When we understand God’s plans for us, plans that are too big for us, it causes us to seek God’s face and enables us to pray according to God’s will. Then because we are praying and working in line with God’s plan, He hears us and enables us to do what we can not do ourselves. That is when life with God becomes exciting and fulfilling.
God declares over you and me a hope and a future, but we have to believe and pray it into reality. God promised Abraham that he would have descendents as numerous as the stars when he was married to a barren woman. God promised a shepherd boy named David that he was going to be the next king of Israel. Both had to persevere in faith to receive the promise.
As you enter the New Year, I encourage you to resolve to put your hope and future squarely in God’s hands, pursue His will for your life and His alone. Once you have received a word from Him, do not let go until it has been fulfilled in your life. Have faith in God! He has an awesome future planned for you.
Andy Clark
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