This time. This place.

“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.” Jeremiah 29:11.

A familiar passage to many Christians became one of my favorites sometime around my high school years. I would cling to this Scripture through the uncertainty of my college years, as I wondered the direction of my life, as I waited patiently (or impatiently) for the man the Lord prepared for me, and as I dealt with the turmoil of relationships gone wrong. 

Why did I fret? Why did I lay awake at night worrying about the “what next?” God had me and my life all under his control and safekeeping. I knew this. I trusted this. Did I live it? 

Feeling Stuck

In those times of uncertainty and worry, I felt stuck so had nowhere else to go but the Lord. I sought refuge in the evening chapel devotions and in my personal time with the Lord. The questions about my future churned through my mind until they turned into requests of God. 

And I continued to go back to Jeremiah 29:11 often. The promise that God made to the exiles in Babylon was a promise for me too. He had good plans for me, plans that would provide hope and a future. A future with Him, no matter what lie ahead. 

I had the promise, yet I felt like I was still waiting for the “prosperous plans.”

“Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.” (Jeremiah 29:12)

It wasn’t until into my early adult years that I read Jeremiah 29:11 in context…and kept reading beyond that well-known verse. 

His purpose

So maybe God allows the hardships, the trials, the uncertainties, allows us to feel stuck or allows our minds to wander in the middle of the night, so that we will call on him.

It was in the hour of utmost need that I cried out to the Lord. He was not out of reach; He was right with me the whole time, waiting for me to call out and beg for him to lead me and give me direction. I was surrounded daily by his Word, right there at my fingertips, in my coursework, in my private moments with him and in the wise, godly and encouraging people he placed in my life. 

No matter how many times I questioned what he allowed in my life, during my childhood or the way things seemed to be turning out during those college years, I didn’t question my desire to serve him. That remained strong and I planned to continue on the path toward the teaching ministry.

Yet the path seemed to be taking unexpected turns, turns I was willing to take, but wondered how (if!) I would ever find my way back to what I thought my future would be…or to the person I thought would be in my future. 

It was in leaving behind what I thought my life would hold, that I was able to find strength and rest and contentment in the Lord. 

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13)

It was this verse that put the full exclamation point on verses 11 and 12.

I hadn’t been seeking the Lord with all my heart. I thought I was, but there was something I was still holding on to that God wanted me to let go of. It was in the “letting go” that God showed me his plan, his way and in his time.

The plans he had waiting for me turned out even sweeter than I could have ever imagined.

Different Time, Same Feelings

I had often felt I would have fit better in a different era, a different time, place and culture. Frontier days in America captivated me at an early age and I took to learning about Laura Ingalls. Certainly I should have been born in that time, Lord, I would have been more suited for that era. Or so my faulty thinking goes.

At times I just felt stuck in a time and place that did not match how I felt. 

Is this a bit of what Peter talks about being foreigners and exiles? (1 Peter 2:11-17) We will never feel truly at home here in this sinful world, yet God calls us to live for him while we are here so that people glorify God. 

But sometimes I just feel stuck, Lord, just like those college days, not sure how you’re working in my life, what turn I should take next, what direction I should go, what path to take on the seemingly endless options of tasks I have before me.

The bigger question remains. Why? 

Why did you allow the trials, the illness, the relationship to crumble, the hardships? Lord, why?

We know the answer. Ultimately, the answer was never the Lord’s will. The answer for all the trials, tragedy and trauma is sin. Where sin is, there hardships will be too. Sin was never part of God’s plan. 

The Truth Brings Healing

The solution to our biggest problem, sin, however, is right before us in these words:

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5:19-21

No matter what trauma or trials we endure or how stuck we feel because of them, there is purpose. God is turning our troubles to good. We can trust that because he promises it and he does not turn back on his Word. 

I can look back on my life and see the times God allowed hardship. How those times were God pruning this tree so that I would grow. I can see what lessons I learned through the suffering, see how those times drew me closer to my Lord and see how God worked for good in my life. Just like the Lord’s servant, Job. So why would I think he’ll do any different for me now than what he has promised, what he has already proven to me? 

As if I need more proof than a Savior dying on the cross and the Risen Lord next to his empty grave.

Can you look back on your life and see the same? Does it enable you to look at present sufferings in a new light? 

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Romans 8:18

I recently heard it said that the trials we experience on earth will be our trophies in heaven. Let that sink in a minute. (Let the Bird Fly, podcast #262)

If you felt unloved or were abused, think of how the perfect love and embrace of your heavenly Father will feel when you reach the glories of heaven. If your body ailments seem endless, remember you will have a glorious body someday. If your mind is attacked by mental illness, just try to imagine being completely free from that torture. No longer chained to the effects of sin in this world, but praising your God for the victories you have in Christ as you reach your eternal home in heaven. 

God is Faithful

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it. 1 Thessalonians 5:24

And this is what God wants for us: to know and trust in him with his plan for our lives. To lean into him when we don’t have the answers. To pour our distress out to him and let him guide us. To serve him with all our days, even when our energy levels are sapped. 

It may be in those moments that God is calling to you to be filled up with His Word. Seek him as he so desires you to. 

“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 on 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.” Jeremiah 29:11-13

God put you and me in this time and place so that we would seek him. In him you have your purpose. He will equip you in each phase of life until he carries you to the joys of heaven.