A God of Hope

It's one of those verses you hear thrown around pretty often.

Most of the time, I have heard this verse used as a way for someone to offer hope to a person who is experiencing a hard time.  I've even heard it used as an argument for how the hard time you're going through couldn't possibly have come from God. I mean, He says he has plans not to harm you, right?


It's actually interesting hearing this verse in the context of the rest of the story. To summarize, this is a time of disobedience in God's people and he is telling them, through one of the prophets, that they are about to be deported and taken from the country he had given them. Doesn't sound too promising, right? But he lets them know that after 70 years of exile, he will bring them back. He assures them of this by telling them the verse above. "I know the plans I have for you."


I think it's ok to have hope for things to turn positive, but sometimes we can get a bit caught by false reassurances and find ourselves struggling when we're going through those times of life that feel like never ending trials. When you feel like you just stood up from the last wave, only to be knocked down again. Then you think, "God, I thought your plan is to make me prosper. What gives?" and you search for anything that might offer you hope for an end to the struggle.


It can be hard to trust God's plan when it seems like the hard times just won't quit. It can be easy to wonder and maybe even question God in those times. We want to believe that this verse is telling us there will always be a light at the end of the tunnel, but what happens if that light still hasn't shown?


God doesn't promise us that we will see happy times ahead in this life. He doesn't promise that the struggle you're going through will even come to an end while on earth. We seem to want our lives to be all flowers and sunshine, and when it's not, we feel like God's not being "fair" or "good" to us.


I want to challenge you not to let these verses lead you to questioning God's goodness if things aren't going the way you think they should.


Instead, I want you to see 3 very important things I believe God wants us to have: patience, trust, and hope.


- Patience in God's plan and knowing that his timing is not always in line with our timing.

- Trust that God's plan is better than our own. He created every detail of our lives and knows what is the absolute best for us. We only have to follow him and let him show us the way.

- Hope that even if we are not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel, if we are living in Him we know that we will have the ultimate prize of Heaven after this life is over.


God doesn't want us to be so attached to our time on earth that we forget the beauty that is in our future. If you are going through a time of struggle (and we all have, or will at some point), keep reminding yourself that what he has in store for us for eternity will be perfect.