Your Answer to Despair Is in the Most Skipped Verse in Jeremiah
Everybody likes Jeremiah 29:11
Have you ever despaired in a bad situation?
Your continued prayer does not change your awful circumstance?
I know I have.
What should a person do when the stress does not leave up?
One answer, not the only one, we find in Jeremiah chapter twenty-nine.
The answer is, WAIT
The prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Jews held captive in Babylon seven hundred miles away. He assured them, God not only knew their despair. But He had a plan for them to have a future and a hope, which is the verse we all like, Jeremiah 29:11.
But, hold on a minute, don’t skip over verse ten since it introduces God’s plan. It describes an essential element to assure their peace while in captivity.
For thus says the Lord: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place. (Jeremiah 29:10, NKJV).
Seventy years is a long time
Jeremiah wrote for the captive Jews to make the best use of the seventy-year wait. It’s a long time to be still and know the God of the ‘wait.’
You will get a better perspective on verse eleven by reading all Jeremiah twenty-nine.
But, what did Jeremiah say
Wait.
One of the most complex decisions for us to make is to wait. In an era when everything is instant, we find waiting difficult.
He told them to be patient even though others were saying to revolt.
Jeremiah said God does have a plan for their future and has hope.
The predicament of the captive Jews will not change by fighting. Jeremiah said you might as well build houses, marry and have a family because you have seventy years.
God doesn’t have the clock we have.
He does have a time when He will act.
How about us
What is our response when we’re held captive by unfortunate circumstances?
Will our anger change the day for us?
Does our frustration drive us to make stupid mistakes?
Do we get restless; losing all sense of calm?
Is this any way to live?
No, it is not, but God supplies us with patience to wait on His plan.
What do we gain by waiting?
The prophet Isaiah tells us.
But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:31, NKJV) (My emphasis)
Jeremiah says get busy doing life while you wait. Isaiah says, in waiting your strength is renewed. To me, it sounds like a good plan. What do you think?
Then we relax in Jeremiah’s promise in the verse everybody likes
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11, NKJV)
The wrap
Have Patience and carry on and wait for God to fulfill His promise to you.
Thank you for reading,
Richard
