A Hope and a Future

Flying over here, these verses spoke so loud and clear to me.  They are powerful words because they are God's very own words found in Jeremiah 29:11-14.  

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.  Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

 

However, when you begin to recognize the vast circumstances of those you come into contact with, you must stop and ask yourself some very difficult questions:  Does this passage apply to everyone?  Can the poor and needy truly look for hope and a future?  How do the orphans have/find hope and a future?  Do these children get to claim this promise of a God-ordained destiny?

In the Word, God says, "I will not abandon you."  But put yourself in the shoes of an orphan...one with no mother or father caring for them.  How then, would you make sense of this passage?  How could you not feel abandon and alone?

I believe that is why we are here.  That is why I go.  It is for the hurting and distressed, to find hope.  It is through those of us who show up and offer a refuge, a safe place, a home.  It is through individuals living with Christ in them, living the gospel, that they begin to find hope.  It is people like you and me being obedient to the calling and commands He has given us.  It is us no longer remaining indifferent to the suffering of this world.  It is by our actions that those around us can begin to see that God has not abandoned them at all.

God has created each of us in His image.  Each one of us! That includes the orphans around the world, whom the rest of the world has dismissed because of cruelty, neglect, or indifference.  But God has a plan for each one of them.  A plan that includes a hope and future.  God has given us each the tools to give hope to the hopeless.  Unless, however, we are willing to use our tools, children will continue living without knowing that hope.

So, I ask for continued prayers.  May we be able to make Jeremiah 29:11-14 real for these hurting and hopeless children.  May we take advantage of EVERY opportunity God gives us, to proclaim His name and offer them hope and a future worth living for.  For, I have not only been called to preach the good news of the gospel, but to embody it with my very life.