Jeremiah 29:10-11 (NIVUK)
10 This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11 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.
On Sunday we reflected on the Parable of the Sower, and how Jesus may have originally meant it as a message of hope for the struggling, downtrodden and marginalised, rather than a message that divided people into those who listen to him and those who don’t. God holding out hope to those who are struggling is a constant theme in the Bible, today’s verse is another example. God’s people are in exile in Babylon as a result of their leaders’ turning from God. But God doesn’t leave them there, instead he holds out a promise of being brought back home, a message of a future.
Father, thank you that in you there is always hope – help us to receive it and share it.
Photo by Faris Mohammed on Unsplash
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