Change of Plans?

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.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Jeremiah wrote these promises to people who were devastated physically and spiritually. After repeated warnings by prophets to turn from their sins and return to God, Israel had been crushed militarily by Babylon. The people who heard his words had been taken as captive exiles to a strange country. If God had let them lose the land given to them as a sign of their divine covenant with their Lord, had God abandoned them? Had they run out of chances to make a new beginning?

No, the prophet assures them, they will be in captivity for the foreseeable future, but God will bring their nation into a good future. God’s plan for Israel to be the divine instrument to reconcile all the peoples of the world to God remains. God is with them in their exile, hearing them and speaking through prophets to remind them of God’s faithfulness and love.

Sometimes as we pursue what we understand as God’s will for our lives – a career, a field of study or a significant relationship – something closes down that path. Or the path may be right, but it is far harder than we expected. We may feel exiled from the life we expected. Then this Word of God from Jeremiah speaks to us as well. God’s plan to use us in the world remains, perhaps on the same path, perhaps on a new one. When we search after God, the path will become clearer. God hears the prayers of our hearts and is at work, even now, to bring a good future. 

God's peace,

Katie