In Jeremiah 29:11(NLT), God told His people, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” God is our Heavenly Father, and in this verse, He tells us that the plans He has for us are good, and these plans that He has will give us a future and a hope. He’s proven this! He’s backed it up through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Because of what God accomplished through the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, we have received the gift of eternal life. We are in God in Christ eternally. What’s better than this? Nothing is better than what God has given us through Christ, and we need to make sure we’re behaving as though we know it, and we’re truly thankful for all God has done.
This verse in Jeremiah 29:11 should put some pep in our step! We ought to be enthusiastically and continually looking forward to what God has in store. We should wake up every morning with the mindset of Lamentations 3:23-24(NLT), “23 Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!” We have a purpose in God’s plan, and He promises that if we get our eyes on the prize and learn to love and live greater in Christ, He will strengthen and keep us. This is what we should be praying about, that God will anchor us in faith as we excel in the example of Christ each day.
A sister in Christ that I know said to me, “There’s nothing to look forward to in this earth experience anymore.” There’s a great deal of death in this statement, because there’s absolutely no hope in it. As those who believe in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ, this should never come out of our mouths. Ephesians 2:12 reminds us that there was a time when we were apart from Christ, and we were living in utter darkness. We lived in this world without God and without hope, but through Jesus Christ, we have hope: and not just for this life, but for the life to come.
This hope is not defined by circumstances and conditions. Jesus Christ has already informed us that earth is challenging business, and we need to lean on the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, for the strength and power to live in his victory. The problem is that many of us haven’t anchored our hope in Christ, but we’ve anchored our hope in other things and people. We place our hope in money, in our spouses, girlfriends, or boyfriends. We think people and things can fill the voids many of us are experiencing, but only Jesus Christ can fill our cups, and we need to switch gears and realize this.
1Peter 3:15(NLT) says, “Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it.” As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, it’s our privilege and responsibility to plainly tell others about the hope we have in Christ, but we can’t explain something we’re not experiencing ourselves. 1Corinthians 2:9 (NLT) says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” We ought to be leaping for joy every day because of what God has promised. It’s not the sad, sob story that we should be telling folks. We ought to be excited about what Jesus Christ is doing in our lives. We should be telling them about our testimony, and if we don’t think we have one, that’s not God’s fault. Our Heavenly Father deals in the exceedingly abundantly! He goes beyond anything we could ever ask or think, and this is where we need to set our sights.
2Thessalonians 2:117(NLT) says, “16 Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal comfort and a wonderful hope, 17 comfort you and strengthen you in every good thing you do and say.” God loves us, and through His grace, He’s given us eternal comfort and hope. We will never be without it and if we’re not rejoicing about this, we’re living beneath our privilege. Hope must be fueled by our faith in God, and this is a problem for many of us, because we’ve given up on faith. We’re not believing for higher and greater in Christ, and this has taken the gas out of our tanks. We must change this if pleasing God is our goal. He promises to strengthen us in every good thing we do and say, and we should be living in such a way that we are proving we believe God’s Word is true. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Get Excited for the Future!”, written by KLizzie, edited by Reverend Fran Mack, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.