I would say that this verse is one of the most quoted verses in the Bible, yet hardly anybody (including myself) really understands it. I am reading through Jeremiah right now and came upon this chapter today and I was amazed at the context. Here is the first verse of Jeremiah chapter 29:
"This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and the priests, the prophets, and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon."
Verse 11 is right in the middle of the letter. Only one verse before verse 11, God tells them that they will be in exile for 70 years. Where is the prosperity? Where is the hope? Most of the people alive to hear this promise wouldn't be alive when it was fulfilled.
God has been teaching me the last few months how important it is to keep my eyes fixed on Heaven and to continually remind myself that this earth is not my home. I think that this verse has such a bigger meaning than I have given it in the past. Yes, I do believe God is referring to His promise to release them from their exile (and He did), but I also believe that He is referring to Jesus' coming. Both the first AND the second. So many people on the earth will not experience prosperity and they will be harmed, but that does not mean God has broken His promise! Heaven is the place where this verse will be able to be completely fulfilled. His ultimate plan is for us to be with Him forever, and that promise WILL be fulfilled, even if not while we are on this earth.
I believe that one of Satan's main tactics is to get us to focus on only the here and now. He doesn't want us to think about or talk about Heaven, because if we do, it will drastically change how we live! Along with Jeremiah, I also read 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 today. I thought it was amazing how it perfectly lined up! The last three verses of the chapter say this:
"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words."
Wow. God commands us to talk about this! He knows how important it is for us to keep our focus on Heaven so that we are not discouraged. After I read these few verses I knew I wanted to share this with all of you to encourage you. As I am in Uganda it will be one of my biggest goals to always keep my focus in the correct place, and I hope you will all do the same. So I will leave you with this verse:
"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
-2 Corinthians 4:16-18
And I can't help but add this because it fits so well!! I hope it encourages you as much as it encourages me.
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