God's Plan for Your Life

Trevor S. Ferguson

May 15, 2011

Jeremiah 29:4-14 (KJV)
⁴ Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, unto all that are carried away captives, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem unto Babylon;
⁵ Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them;
⁶ Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished.
⁷ And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
⁸ For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Let not your prophets and your diviners, that be in the midst of you, deceive you, neither hearken to your dreams which ye cause to be dreamed.
⁹ For they prophesy falsely unto you in my name: I have not sent them, saith the Lord.
¹⁰ For thus saith the Lord, That after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you, and perform my good word toward you, in causing you to return to this place.
¹¹ For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
¹² Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
¹³ And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
¹⁴ And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

INTRODUCTION

Many people today have questions regarding their purpose and what God desire’s for their lives. This is often expressed as questions concerning God’s will. In some cases persons approach these issues with great trepidation because they fear that God’s will for them will include things that they would rather not do. At other times, especially when going through difficult circumstances persons wonder what the future holds. In many such cases our eyes are blinded by the cloud of our circumstances and we see nothing but doom and gloom. These negatives perceptions often lead to a state of apathy, in which we seek to do nothing because we perceive that our actions will have only negative results.

Today we look at an example from the scripture where the Jews found themselves in captivity and how God through the prophet Jeremiah encouraged the people and instructed them as to what they should do. These principles are applicable to us today and will help us understand what God’s plan for our lives is.

EXPOSITION

The story is set in the time of the prophet Jeremiah, as he prophesied to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Nebuchadnezzar had besieged the city of Jerusalem and had taken some of the inhabitants to Babylon; among them were Daniel and his three friends – Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. Note that the northern tribes of Israel had already been taken into captivity by the Assyrians. Much has been written in the bible about this period of captivity; the books of Ezekiel and Daniel are set in this period. We also have references in the psalms. The best known being of these psalms is psalm 137, which shows that the people were depressed and despondent, as illustrated in the verses below:

By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down, yea, we wept When we remembered Zion.
We hung our harps Upon the willows in the midst of it.
For there those who carried us away captive asked of us a song,

And those who plundered us requested mirth, Saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
How shall we sing the Lord's song In a foreign land?

In Jeremiah chapter 29, Jeremiah writes to the elders in Babylon to encourage them and to instruct them what to do. Rather than sit in apathy the people were instructed to get on with their lives!

It would be useless for them to sit and cry or complain about their unfortunate circumstances, instead they should do the things they normally do: build houses, dwell in them, plant gardens (add some beauty to their environment), eat the fruit, take wives, bear children. In short they were being instructed to get on with their lives. This view is echoed in the New Testament (Luke 19:13) where in one of Jesus’ parables He quotes a nobleman who instructed his servants : Occupy till I come! They were also instructed not to listen to the false prophets who offered convenient prophecies and gave the people false hopes. Although they had previously been told that Israel  would spend  seventy years in Babylon (Jer. 25:11) they apparently rejected Jeremiah’s prophecy and sought to predict an early fall of the Babylonian empire and end to the exile. Jeremiah however reiterated the prophecy of chapter 25:11, where he had prophesied that God had appointed for them to spend seventy years in Babylon and afterwards they would return to Israel.

Today the Lord is saying to us that the process we are going through is for a set time; we do not know the duration of that set time but God is working out His purpose through us. At the end of this set time he will bring us into the place he wants us to be.

So what do we do while we wait on the Lord? We do just as Jeremiah had instructed the Jews in Babylon – Get on with our usual activities! We cannot afford to sit and wait and do nothing. For the church we must get on with our activities, keep on teaching, keep on preaching, and keep on evangelizing; if we had put some activities on hold its time to take them up again. We also concur with Paul’s instruction to Timothy: Preach the word; be instant in season and out of season! When it is convenient, preach, when it’s inconvenient, preach, when it’s fashionable, preach, when it’s unfashionable, preach, when people hear, preach, when people will not hear, preach!

Many will then say that this is hard and I have nothing to look forward to, but the next verse provides the encouragement we need. What are God’s plans for us? What are His thoughts towards us?

Verse 11 states: For I know that thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. The NIV translation makes interested reading: 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. God’s plan is for you to prosper and to do well, God’s plan for us includes great hope and an exciting future.

Martha Munizzi in her song captures this idea very well: Your latter will be greater than your past, you will be blessed more than your you can ask , despite all that has been done, your best is yet to come, your latter will be greater, your future will be greater than the past!

CONCLUSION

Gods plan for your life involves a bright and hopeful future! Don’t be discouraged by your present negative situations. Don’t fall into apathy and inactivity. Get on with your life. Allow God work to out His purpose in your life. Your present position is for a set time – but the best is yet to come!

Let us walk with confidence, let us continue to work for the Lord. His plans for us are good and we can look forward to a bright future.