The Best Plans (Daily Refresh, YouVersion, 11-06-25)

Jeremiah 29:11 is a popular verse that’s often slapped onto journals, etched into coffee mugs, and printed on t-shirts.

“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.”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭29:11‬ ‭NIV‬‬

And God does have a plan for you.
God does want to bless you.
God does want to give you hope and a future. 

But, we should also pay attention to the original context …

In this case, God was speaking through the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah—people who’d recently been exiled to Babylon for 70 years. 

The Jewish people were banished to a foreign land because of their insatiable appetite for sin. In fact, for 23 years Jeremiah had been warning them to stop rebelling against God or prepare to face the consequences.

God is patient, but He is also just. 

In other words, the Jews were sent to timeout. And as you can read in the preceding chapters, God made a case against His beloved people …

They’d exploited foreigners, orphans, and widows. They’d denied the rights of the poor. They’d refused to stand up for truth or obey God’s instructions. They’d murdered the innocent and committed adultery. They’d rejoiced in doing evil and their lives were ruled by greed. They’d even built pagan shrines, sacrificing their sons and daughters in the fires. It was a dark time. And yet, somehow, God’s mercy always extends to the darkest places on earth.

That’s why, just a few verses later, God said they could seek Him and find Him, and He would bring them back from captivity (Jeremiah‬ ‭29:13‬-14).

That’s why he encouraged them—while in exile—to build houses, plant gardens, get married, have babies, and work for the peace and prosperity of their temporary home (Jeremiah 29:5-7).

He wanted them to know: He hadn’t forgotten them. He still wanted good for them. He still had plans to restore them.

God is serious about sin, but He’s just as passionate about redemption.

Though Jeremiah 29:11 was meant for a specific people at a specific time, God’s heart for the restoration of broken people is generationally timeless. 

Even when we feel stuck in the process, God still has a plan. 
We can put our trust in the God whose goal is always redemption.

My Thoughts

For many years, I took this verse out of context and applied it to my life personally. Then a good friend online who is also a Bible scholar corrected my assumptions and I stopped referring to this verse as one that points to God’s coming blessings. I appreciate this devotional because it gives the context and the fact that God does have a plan for each of us and that plan is our eternal redemption.

God is not planning to give us big houses, nice cars, and other worldly goods. After all, we cannot take those with us when we depart this life anyway. What He is planning for us is a new heart, one made of flesh and one that yearns to be close to Him. That is our hope and our future. The worldly things that we desire are fleeting. God’s plans for us are forever.

I’m thankful that God did not give up on Judah and He hasn’t given up on us either. As I read through their list of sins, I recognized that there are many that apply to people today. Many don’t stand up for truth because they deny that the Bible is the standard for all truth. They murder the innocent babies and call it “reproductive rights” and they commit adultery and call it “trying out marriage.” When I got to the part about pagan shrines, I almost stopped and said to myself that doesn’t apply. But doesn’t it? People today “worship” at the shrine of Apple, the latest electronic gadgets, a fancy Tesla or any other new and shiny purchase about which they can boast. I think our pagan shrine today is a worship of self and satisfying all of one’s desires, without regard to others who have little or nothing and need help just to eat every day. So, are we wicked? Yes, in every way. But God hasn’t turned His back on us and destroyed us…yet. Repentance is needed. We all need to turn and look to God for His plan of redemption and not for our plan of self-gratification. Nothing we give ourselves on earth is worth giving up eternity with God. Let’s put our hope in Him and count on a future with Him, forever.