I know the plans I have for you

Jeremiah 29:11 states: 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.'

Many believers claim this verse as a promise in their life. The promise is for a good life, a life with hope. It is important to have hope, a belief that life will be better tomorrow. Hope allows us to work through difficulties in life today, knowing the difficulties will result in a better life.

I recently went hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park with my son. We selected a trail with a 2500' rise to a peak that was above 12,000'. The start of a hike is always exciting and we started out a little too fast. As we passed the 11,000' elevation, the hiking became tough and it was slow. One factor that helped us get to the top was the hope of seeing the top of a mountain. We persevered and our reward was a great time of exploration of a new world. It is vital to have hope, it is what keeps us going.

The application of this verse to a specific life can be problematic. A person may think it is Gods purpose to make a better life happen in their life and God will fulfill this better life very soon. When a person faces persistent problems, the thought could come to mind that God is not fulfilling His promise. What is the problem?

Context is the problem. When we take a verse from a large book, it is easy to misunderstand the meaning of the verse. Jeremiah prophesied through the time that Judah, the southern kingdom of Israel, was conquered. Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel 135 years earlier. The writing of the 29^th chapter of Jeremiah was to the people taken into captivity in Babylon. Their life was hopeless because the temple in Jerusalem was the center of their life with God. With their removal from the location of the temple, they believed their contact with God was gone.

Jeremiah writes to the exiles, instructing them to build a life in Babylon. They were to work for the success of the place where they were living. God promised to bring them back to Jerusalem at the end of seventy years. This is when God makes the promise in Jeremiah 29:11. This promise could not have made sense to the readers of the letter. Their picture of a good life was to be in Jerusalem. God was telling them to live their life where they were. The fulfillment of Gods promise would not be in their lifetime. The return from exile would be when their children were old.

We must take into account the context of the verses from the Bible that we claim in our lives. It is clear this verse does not mean that God is promising to provide a better life immediately. If we forget to look at the context of a passage, it may lead to disillusionment. If we work to discover the context, we can learn the richness of God's promises, regardless of the facts we face in life at the moment.