Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Abba, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Abba, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Jeremiah 29:11
"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."
CONSIDER THIS
This is one of the all-time favorite texts of most all of us. It is one of those that can easily be ripped off the page and put onto a nice bumper sticker or refrigerator magnet. It reminds me of what my friend, the renowned Bible Scholar, Ben Witherington III says about Bible study. He says, "A text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean."
So, what's the context? Let's go back to the top of chapter 29. It is crystal clear. And I quote:
This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. (v. 1)
Did you catch it? Jeremiah 29:11 comes in the midst of a letter sent from the prophet Jeremiah to a group of people who were living in deep desolation, depression, and hopelessness—a people who felt their lives were all but over and done, a people who could sum their life with two words: no future. Really, we could bring it down to one word: exile.
I suspect a lot of people who chose Jeremiah 29:11 as their new word for the new year are feeling some semblance of this reality. Things have not turned out as you hoped. The cancer is back. The marriage won't survive. The job or the school or the opportunity didn't work out. Every hopeful dating situation seems to fizzle out. The anxiety and depression your otherwise healthy child suffers will not relent and is becoming worse. Those two words are ever speaking; sometimes whispering and other times screaming: no future! You feel exiled from your life.
The first thing people like us are drawn to when we see a text like Jeremiah 29:11 are the two words: the plans. Then we see words like prosper and hope and future and we feel some sense of relief followed by what can become a burning question which so often leads to a burdensome quest. And I never saw the connection between the word question and quest until just now. And the burning question becoming the burdensome quest?
What are the plans?
We want to know the plans. Will we be moving to a new place? Will my spouse finally wake up and reverse course? Will I finally find the love of my life? Will I get into the experimental cancer trial? What are the plans, God? Will you just show me the plans? Everything will be fine if you just give me the plans.
The problem with this way of thinking is it keeps our focus on the future and on some specific version of the future we have labeled as "the plans." Everything will be okay when I finally get the plans. Have you noticed how the plans are never quite yet; never right now; always somewhere out there, just around the next bend, just over the rainbow?
I want to suggest the two most powerful words from the text are not the plans. See if you can spot them as I read it again:
"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."
You heard them, didn't you? The two most powerful words from our beloved text, Jeremiah 29:11, are "I know."
Notice the forward context of the text: "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" (vv. 12–13).
Here's the miracle. When our quest shifts from trying to know the plans to seeking the one who says "I know," we discover the one who holds the plans is the plan.
THE PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Lord Jesus—Word of God from before the beginning—our Great Teacher,
I confess how much I focus on getting the plans. If I'm honest, I want you to give me the plans so I can take it from there. Meanwhile, your big plan is for me to know you like you know me. You are the plan. And as I know you in all the layers and details of my life, you are unfolding the plan, even beyond my awareness. Knowing you is prosperity. Knowing you is hope. Knowing you is the future; right here and right now. Deliver me from my quest to know the plans and onto the path of knowing you.
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for our good.
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen!
