Jeremiah 29:11-14
Hope in the Strangest Places

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

New Revised Standard Version

For a prophet whose words carried such sorrow that he is known as the "weeping prophet", this passage in chapter 29 is positive and hopeful. Jeremiah is writing after the fall of Jerusalem, when all those of position, power, youth, or strength have been taken to Babylon, and Jeremiah remains there in the now-desolate homeland. He truly did see hope, based on how God would use the destruction and downfall to lead His people back to the Truth.

Notice what Jeremiah says must happen for this restoration to take place. There is nothing that God needs to do to prepare -- God is already prepared, and eager to give "a future with hope". The changes needed must come from God's people. They -- we -- are called to pray, with assurance that God will hear our prayers. We are to seek God, to focus on God, to devote ourselves to God.

When we seek God with sincerety and purpose, God will "let us" find Him. Why that wording? Because God has already found us! We are never lost from God. Instead, we are the ones who forget to look for God for our direction, our answers, our completeness and purpose. We can have that back again, when we change our directions, give up our way, and follow God's Way.

Some of the late psalms describe how defeated the Hebrew people felt in Babylon. Their image of God was too small -- they believed they were worshiping the God of Israel, and since they had been defeated, their God might have been less powerful than the god of Babylon, or worse, their God had abandoned them.

Jeremiah knew different! He knew that God was God over Babylon just as much as over Jerusalem. He has the foresight and presence to see that God could use the worst defeat for the nation to bring about a great spiritual victory for the people. Jeremiah also knew that when the relationship with God was restored, everything else would follow out of the magnificent generosity of God's love.

That is still true today! God plans for our welfare, not our harm. God is always ready to bless us, and it is up to us to devote ourselves to God.