How God Thinks about Us

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you …” – Jeremiah 29:11

First, it is an awesome thing to consider that God would even have a thought toward any one of us. Then we marvel to know that his thoughts are deep and loving and of peace and a future purpose to give us courage to dream great dreams, see visions that stagger the imagination, and act in faith upon a calling that is greater than ourselves.

We live in the thoughts of God.

I do not mean that in some fuzzy esoteric way. We occupy space in His heart and mind. He thinks about us. He envisions our future. He calls us to embrace His purposes and those purposes include us.

To paraphrase, He knows His own plans for us, and they are magnificent.

God summarizes those plans for Jeremiah, and they apply to each of us even as they were intended for him and for Israel in context.

They are plans for peace, the wellbeing of our souls.

They are plans that are free from evil.

God allows trouble in our lives, but the only evil that ever gets in is when we divorce our trouble from His purposes.

Then, His plans are for an expected end. Everything God does in and for us has an end in sight and that end is the fulfillment of his will in our life and the realization of His kingdom.

God gives Jeremiah a plan for responding to him. It is for us as well.

First, he is to call upon God. Have you called upon him? Have you opened a line of communication through faith in Jesus Christ?

Then, Jeremiah is to pray. If we do nothing else this day, let us pray.

Then, he is to seek God with all his heart. The promise is that if we seek him with all of our hearts, we shall surely find him.

God is speaking to a prophet of captivity about the exile of His people. He assures the prophet that if he follows these steps, the people will be gathered again and return home.

All around us, people are in exile from their true home and held captive by sin and addictions. God has spoken to His people, prophets of our generation all, about his plans and he has admonished each of us to call upon him, pray to him, and seek him with all of our hearts so that he can make us his agents for redemption in a dark world.

God has great thoughts about you; he can do great things through you. Will you seek Him?

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Jeremiah 29:1,4-13

These are the words of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people, whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, for it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them, says the Lord. For thus says the Lord: Only when Babylon's seventy years are completed will I visit you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this place. For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.