Thoughts of You — E-day minus seven

Perhaps you’ve heard the passage quoted: "I know the thoughts I have toward you; thoughts of good, not evil; to give you hope and a future." It’s a great passage, but when you put it in its proper context, it is a knock-out.

At the time this statement was made, at least 99%, if not more, of the descendents of Jacob had been removed from their land and sent into captivity as punishment for their unrelentingly wicked activities, and their refusal to see that what they were doing was wrong. This was a low blow, particularly to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who had seen themselves as invincible, not because God was on their side, but because the throne of David was in their city, and certain holy artifacts resided in certain holy buildings in their holy city. The Lord had already told them they’d be exiled for seventy years, but they refused to believe it. Even the ones who were already living in Babylon had their hearts set on the tables being immediately turned, and on a swift return to Jerusalem.

Into this picture comes the prophet with a word from the Lord. God says that He wants His people to prosper. Mind you, He’s telling them this in the same breath in which he tells them they’re going to spend seventy years in captivity, so this couldn’t have computed very well. I’m going to heavily paraphrase and summarize this passage, in the hope that you’ll get the point. He said that if they were willing to believe that God intended for them to prosper even in their captivity, they would prosper.

Think about this carefully. They were prisoners of war. They were strangers in a strange land. They weren’t able to follow all their old customs. And in the middle of all of this, God says, ‘I want you to prosper and increase. If you will stop fighting what you think your circumstances are, and if you will stop embracing the false hope of getting your own way, you can experience—in your captivity—a better life than you ever had in your freedom.’ He told them to pray for the peace and prosperity of the city in which they lived, so that they could live in peace and prosperity … this people who had been under fire their whole lives.

Here is my point: Regardless of the situation in which you find yourself, and, in fact, regardless of why you find yourself in that situation, the Lord’s desire is for you to prosper. Your situation may be very, very bad. You may be in that situation because you have been very, very bad, stupid, or wicked—or you may have done nothing at all to deserve the badness of your circumstances. It doesn’t matter. If you are willing to believe that the Lord wants you to prosper, you can prosper.

Put yourself in His hand, do what He tells you to do, and embrace His thoughts of you.

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