Your Hardship Serves a Purpose

Watch as R.D. Glenn unpacks Jeremiah 29:10-14.

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The Scripture

“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

What is the Lord’s Plan?

The only plan that ultimately matters is the Lord’s plan for you. No other plan – your own plan or someone else’s, has the final say. This begs the question, “what is the Lord’s plan for you?” This question can be paralyzing if you start at the micro-level. Who am I supposed to marry? What direction should I go with my career and family? Does God want me to do A or B? If we start at the micro-level, we can get lost in the weeds of God’s plan for us, but if we shift to the macro, and start with the big picture rather than the small details, then we can apply it to the details of our lives.

The Lord has a plan for you. And that is a plan to save you. The Lord God of the Universe has a plan to rescue you from the kingdom of darkness and to transfer you into the kingdom of His Son. The Lord’s plan for you is to finally and ultimately deliver you from the eternal hell that you deserve and to deliver you to rule and reign with Him forever as co-heirs with Christ. How is that for a future and a hope?

The Lord’s plan for all of creation is to bring glory to His name by saving His people. By reconciling rebellious sinners to himself to enjoy eternity together – that’s God’s plan. And the cross of Jesus is right at the centre of His plan. On the cross God used the greatest miscarriage of justice to transact the cosmic and personal moment of mercy. The cross is the way God works out his big macro plan and the cross becomes the model for how God works out His detailed plan for our lives. 

God’s Plan Looks Like the Cross

God’s plan for you looks like the cross. When you look to the cross you see that God’s ultimate plan goes from death to resurrection. When you look to the cross, you see that, in your moment-by-moment life, you don’t get resurrection unless there is death. We sometimes question God’s good plan for our lives when we face injustice and difficulty, but the consistent witness from scripture is that God works out His good plan by bringing beauty from ashes – by bringing new life from death. God’s good plan for a future and hope for his people is not about a life without struggle and loss, it is about something far deeper. Instead, God’s good plan is to redeem, and to use, and to save through hardship, difficulty and loss.

Not a Detour

The cross of Christ was not a detour along the way of God’s great plan for humanity. The cross was God’s plan for humanity from the beginning. It was always God’s plan to save the world through the death of His Son. And your suffering is not a detour in God’s plan either.

The book of Jeremiah was written at a time when God’s people were devastated by the wicked and ungodly Babylonian empire. God’s people were overtaken and exiled  and forcibly removed from then land of promise and forced into a life of servitude in Babylon. The entire nation felt God-forsaken. It was one of the darkest moments in the history of God’s people. And it was in this very moment that God said to His people, “I know that everything is falling apart around you. I know and see the injustice and despair. But I know the plans I have for you. Plans for a future and a hope.”

God’s Plan is Good

In your darkest moments, remind yourself of God’s good plan for you. You may a situation in your life where you feel like God has abandoned you. Perhaps you feel overtaken by there plans of other people – an unjust boss or family member. But hear the words of Jeremiah 29:11 – God has a good plan for you.

Your Hardship Serves a Purpose

All of us see the problems in our lives as something outside of God’s purposes, and so we push against the problems. But what if Jeremiah 29:11 is true? The hardship you are facing is not outside of God’s plan – it is God’s plan for you. It is not to be avoided – it serves a purpose in God’s plan. And so your invitation is to embrace and not waste your hardships. Allow the difficulty to press you into the Lord. He sent you there – He sent His people into exile and He gave them the grace and faith to sustain them. 

It’s a sad truth, but we are most aware of God in exile. It is in the moments of suffering and loss that we come to a depth of faith in Christ that we never otherwise could have experienced. We never wish for these things, but the good news is that the suffering is not wasted. God is using it for a good purpose. It is His severe mercy to us. God loves us too much to give us a life of ease, where we would blow through 80 years and never give him a thought.

C.S. Lewis said, 

“We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

Allow it to Press You In

The plans that God has for you are not detoured by the suffering, loss and injustice in your life, but rather include it. So what do you do? When you find yourself in exile, don’t grumble, but instead look for ways to flourish and grow. When your faced with suffering, don’t push it away. Allow the suffering to strip away any sense self-righteousness and self-contentment and allow it press you into a deeper faith in the Lord. 

Embrace His Timing

The Lord’s good plan is also subject to his timing. If we are going to come to a place of trust in the Lord’s plan for our lives, then we have to also embrace his timing for that plan. God’s timing is rarely our timing. It often feels like his timing takes too long. As God’s people, we may not live long enough to see God’s redemptive plan work out in our lifetime, but we trust the Lord’s plan and know that ultimately everything will be set right on the last day. 

So much of what we experience in this life will try to rob us of our trust in God’s plan, so we have to keep returning back to it. Take stock of your life. Take stock of God’s promises. Ask the question, ‘What if this problem, what if this present exile is actually serving a purpose in God’s good plan?’ What if God’s timing is actually good? 

A Refining Fire

God’s plan is to save His people. He has saved you already on the cross. He has moved you from exile into the promised land. In some sense this has already happened, but in other sense we are still waiting to see the fullness of it. In the meantime, he is using everything, good and bad, to save us moment by moment. 

Scripture has this recurring metaphor – that the hardships, sufferings, and persecutions in this life are like a refining fire, that strips away the dross, so that we might come forth like gold. This present suffering that you are experiencing isn’t outside of God’s plan for you, so don’t waste it. Allow it to bring you back to the Lord.

Even in the Dark, God Has a Plan

God’s plan can be worked out through the deepest, darkest times in your life. Jeremiah 29:11 is not a quick fix to an easy life. Instead, it is a recognition that God has a plan for His people even, and especially, in the darkest hour.