“I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11 ESV).
Don’t you love that verse? I sure do. But it’s shocking to realize that the one who heard these words from the Lord had little evidence in his life that they actually came true.
Jeremiah seemed to fail at everything he did. No one responded to his preaching. He was thrown into a pit and eventually exiled. It did not appear that God was giving him a future and a hope.
Have you ever felt that way? You believe God and love God but don’t really see God?
On my recent trip to the Arab world, I heard the most amazing story. A man came to Christ in a nation with few believers and a culture of extreme persecution. God gave him a dream to lead people to Christ in every province of his nation and train them to start churches.
And it happened! He saw at least two people in every province come to Christ. But as soon as he prepared to train them as church planters, he himself was almost killed and had to flee to another country—the country where I was visiting!
He felt lost and hopeless. But one day he found out something astonishing. Because he was now a refugee and an immigrant, no one in the government of his new country paid any attention to him. They seemed to be unconcerned about what he did as long as he caused no trouble for them.
So he began to bring the people he had led to Christ across the border to his new country and train them there. In his country of exile, he faced no opposition; and the leaders he trained have now, in a very short time, started 36 churches in their home country—two for every state in their nation!
Sometimes, when things seem to be at their worst, the reason you can’t see God is that what He is doing is larger than your own vision.
Stay encouraged today. You are not alone. God is not absent. And He is right now working through the most difficult things in your life to give you and others that future and that hope.
Let that be an encouraging word for you as we serve the Lord together through Life Action, believing together that He is right now doing great things to bring us and those we serve a future and a hope.