Jeremiah 29:11-14

I'm sure that reading the title of this blog made you all think of the familiar passage in Jeremiah. I love this passage, but I find that often times it is taken out of context, or it is used to bring personal fulfillment. Today, this verse was brought to my attention, and since I received that text, this has been on my heart.

"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, "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."

The thing is, this never says that these plans that are going to prosper you are always good. Crazy right? Sometimes those things that prosper us are not good. Soak that in for a second because thats true. Sometimes in life we are given things that to us seem so unbearable and that are things we do not see the outcome in, but the reality is that sometimes these things that seem so unbearable are the things that truly prosper us.

For example, this past year I had to deal with a lot of hard things involving my eyes. I was told that I would not see again possibly, and that either way I would never wear contacts (now, I understand that the contacts thing is not the end of the world, but is definitely hard for a teenage girl to take in!)

And the good you ask? Where was the "prospering"? I have grown in my walk with Christ. I have been given the chance to see beauty in a different way. I have seen God work in my life and in the lives of those around me.

There is prospering in trials. There is good that is not going to harm you that can come from pain and trials.

I love verses 12-14! I love the way it says that I will call to you and you will listen. I love the way it says that Christ will bring you out of captivity.

Sometimes we get so caught up in what does this have to do with me here and now and how this says we will prosper. We overlook the ways we can prosper and the ending of this passage. How encouraging is it that we can prosper through pain and that we will find our way out of captivity?

I don't know about you, but I know that my God is so good!