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Encouragement For The Body

November 27th, 2024

Jeremiah 29:4-13

My first memory of Jeremiah 29 is having it written inside a high school graduation card. A well-wisher quoted this verse as a hopeful message as I went off to college and into adulthood.

The larger context of the verse shows that God’s encouragement is so much larger than an individual “well-wish.” The prophet Jeremiah wrote to the exiles who were struggling in Babylon. They were in the midst of an identity crisis. If they were not God’s people in Jerusalem, who were they?

Jeremiah shared God’s plan for them in their exile. They were to continue to live their lives in the hope that God is, as always, in control. The Babylonians didn’t defeat God. The defeat of the Israelites was not God abdicating His throne. God was, is, and always will be the God Almighty, and this exile did not defeat the plans He was bringing to fruition in the Israelites’ lives.

We, the body of Christ, also find God’s plan for us in the same manner: by praying—for He listens; by seeking the Lord wholeheartedly—for we will find Him. We live in this great hope.

Author: Lecrecia M. Ali