Plans

This verse is printed on the bookmark tucked in our Bible and on a plaque in our kitchen. We send our college students into the world with this verse in the hope that they will seek God’s good plan for their lives. I often write this verse in my cards as an encouragement. And how many of us have secured this verse in our hearts right alongside John 3:16? We love the promise of God’s good plan and purpose for our lives. When we hear this promise, we imagine Rose Garden strolls and Happily Ever After results. Thus, with that promise in hand, we often wonder why sometimes our walk with the Lord finds us in the valleys of life. We wonder what happened to God’s good plan as we look at the chaos of the world around us.

There seems to be a disconnect between God’s promise and our reality, until we look closely at Jeremiah 29. The promise we find there is written in the middle of a letter from God to the people of God. At that time, the people of God had been vanquished by the Babylonians. Jerusalem was destroyed. The Temple lay in ruins. The best and brightest of Judah had been forced to march across a desert to live in exile in Babylon, leaving behind the elderly and infirm to struggle in the wreckage that had been their nation. The people cried out in despair, “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137) They could not imagine a way forward. Where is hope when all is lost? Into that moment of chaos and despair, God sent a letter through His prophet Jeremiah. God declares hope! God promises a future! But God not only promises a plan, God outlines the plan that will allow the people to prosper in the midst of the brokenness of their reality. Too often we focus on one verse, when we need to see the whole letter to see God’s good plan that enabled the people to thrive even in exile.

Today, the people of God need to hear God’s plan yet again, that will enable us to thrive in the midst of our broken reality. God desires us to prosper, to have hope, to live into the future God has for us. The brokenness of our world should not define us. Our actions should not be a reaction to what we experience around us but rather should be an obedient response to God’s plan. Like our brothers and sisters from ancient times, God is calling us to be a blessing to our neighbors (Genesis 12:3), to be light in the darkness (Isaiah 49:6), to bring God’s hope as an antidote to our nations’ despair (Jeremiah 29:7). But where is God’s letter to His people in 2025 to show us how to live in our broken world? Is it possible that God wants to write a letter through us as He did through the prophet Jeremiah?

On Sunday, September 28th Lenape Valley will gather after worship in the Fellowship Hall to listen for God’s good plan and purpose for our faith community in the years ahead. You are an essential part of that gathering as God “bubbles up” His plan in and through us. Share in a prayerful, interactive experience, allowing God’s plan for our faith community to come to light. The Elders will host a continental breakfast. Childcare will be provided so that all can share in this time of discernment. And, for our sports fans, we will be done in plenty of time for you to watch the Eagles- Buccaneers game at 1pm.

God already knows His plan and purpose for Lenape Valley. May we be God’s instruments as He writes His letter of hope through us on Sunday, September 28th.


With you, excited about what God has in store,
Anita