A Bible verse that is quoted frequently is Jeremiah 29:11:
“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.”
Taken out of context this verse can feel like a feather pillow or a stumbling block. We can take this to mean that if we know the Lord and have Jesus in our heart, we can rest easy. We will prosper, never come to harm, and look hopefully forward to a bright future.
Until misfortune comes along. You get laid off at work. You lose your house in a fire. Your spouse is diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. Your child dies. Didn’t God promise? I’m a good Christian; I gave my soul to Jesus. Did I do something wrong?
Misguided friends, neighbors, and even members of our own church family might wonder what you did to stir up God’s wrath.
We bereaved parents carry enough unwarranted guilt as it is. We blame ourselves for not seeing the future, for missing signs of illness or addiction or danger. We wonder if we could have possibly warded off an accident if we had just called our child the day or hour before she got in her car. This terrible thing that has happened must somehow be my fault. Otherwise, God would not have dashed my hopes.
We cannot cherry pick verses from the Bible and apply them to our lives without acknowledging the context if we ever expect to understand life here in a fallen world versus God’s eternal perspective.
When God spoke these words to Jeremiah the prophet, He was telling Jeremiah to warn the Israelites of what was coming. As a whole nation, they were about to be banished to another country and subjugated to the Babylonians. For seventy years. Many of them would die in that interim. Many of the people of Judah would never see their homeland again.
They were being banished because, as a nation, they had abandoned God’s teachings and had committed many sins against God. The entire nation was being banished, including the people who still followed God’s laws. Why did the good people have to suffer, too?
Why did my daughter, who carried the Holy Spirit in her heart, have to die just as she was starting her married life? Why did her husband, who loved her dearly, have to lose his newlywed wife? Why did all of us who cherished her have our plans for her hope and future slammed to a stop?
Jesus told his disciples, “In this world you will have trouble.” (John 16:33) Earlier in that conversation He told them that people might throw them out of the synagogue and might even try to kill them (in fact did kill some of them) in what they think is a service to God (v 2). He also told them that He was leaving soon to go to His father, but “in a little while” He would see them again (v 16).
Just like the disciples we might wonder what does “a little while” mean? It might seem like a very long time to us. Maybe seventy years. Maybe a day. But when that time comes, our grief will turn to joy. We will see the Father and we will see all our loved ones who have moved to Heaven before us. We will rejoice and NO ONE will take away our joy (v 22).
That’s the plan for hope and our future.
Laura
A Light for My Path 
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