hope and a future after COVID-19

“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.”

JEREMIAH 29:11 

update-November 20, 2021

Searching through older posts to share, I was surprised to find this one I posted 1 year and 8 months ago. At that time few of us, myself included, expected we would still be grappling with a viral pandemic, COVID-19, in 2021 and into 2022.

I’m glad we didn’t suspect it then, as it would have made the situation even more bleak than it looked. A highly contagious respiratory virus, that could spread silently, making people minimally ill or lead to severe illness, prolonged hospital stays, and death-struck fear into some people’s hearts while others minimized or even dismissed the risk.

Now, a year and a half later the statistics tell the truth-

• Global Confirmed-256,324,678
• Global Deaths-5,136,380
• U.S. Confirmed-47,539,865
• U.S. Deaths-768,789

source:Johns Hopkins University of Medicine

So, I think the following piece I shared, based on the Biblical reference above, is even more appropriate now. Just as the people these words were originally written to waited a long time for their situation to change, so will we.

I believe we can use this time to develop and deepen our FAITH, HOPE, and LOVE-for ourselves, each other, our God, and in the FUTURE.

longing for hope and a future

Christians often read, quote, and share this scripture when they want to encourage someone starting a new venture like graduating or starting a business, or to deepen someone’s faith.

But when we take the verse out of context, we miss much of the richness and the true inspiration of the passage.

Earlier in the book of Jeremiah we learn that the people he was writing to were slaves, refugees from their native country; not just refugees, but exiles.

Life was tough; it had been for a long time, and would be for a long time more. This is what had been done to them.

” I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. 

 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. 

 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”

Jeremiah 25

Now I am not suggesting God sent COVID to us as punishment or as a divine object lesson. But this invisible virus has made us all captives trying to escape its harm in one way or another-illness, financial strain, separation from family and friends, interrupted education- and worst of all, losing people we love as death has stalked almost every family on earth.

We all know life is not perfect, bad things happen to everyone. But the way we look at our difficulties and what we do with them makes the difference.  

What a Bible scholar says

I’m not a Bible scholar but my friend Jeremy is. He wrote this commentary on Jeremiah 19:11 which he generously shared with me and you.

“This is one of the most misused verses in the Bible, but the comfort this verse offers is far deeper than the out of context promise often given to graduates.

This was a specific promise given to specific people as opposed to a universal promise to mankind, and it was made to them while God was destroying their nation, tearing down the Temple, and sending the people into 70 years of captivity in a foreign land.

Families were torn apart, people were enslaved; those left behind in a desolate homeland struggled to survive starvation. This was the setting of the promise.

But the promise God gave them was- no matter how bad things were about to get, God had a plan and He would not abandon them forever. 

The same God who promised Israel their suffering would end, and they would come into a brighter future because of the refining they would experience,  is the same God who brings us into the covenant promises. No matter what fire we are in, if it is the Lord’s chastisement we are enduring, God  will bring us into a better future if we allow the fire to purify us.

When you feel like giving up, endure. These people suffered for 70 years to receive this promise, so we can endure whatever length we must as well. ”

You can read the entire chapter here –Jeremiah 29

 

written by Jeremy Scott Wilson, B.A., Biblical and Theological Studies; M.A., Theological Studies and Church History. Jeremy occasionally blogs at Awakening to basics .

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. 

Jeremiah 29:11,13, NIV

exploring the HEART of faith, hope, and love

another inspirational graphic from the Lightstock.com collections of stock images, an affiliate link

a desolate waste

Dr. Jonathan Weinkle, author of Healing People, Not Patients , referenced Jeremiah in a recent blog post about the COVID-19 pandemic.

All we can do is keep breathing.  Breathing in the desolate waste, hoping it will again be tilled one day.

The conditions for that tilling, however, are faith, repentance, and repair.  We don’t get to just decide to go back and till the desolate waste and expect crops to sprout abundantly.  We have to work for it. 

Another prophet, Jeremiah, predicted, as the Jews were still in the process of being exiled from the land by the Babylonians, “Houses, vineyards and fields will again be purchased in this land.”  But he meant seventy years thence, not the next day.  Things had to happen, conditions had to change, before that could happen.

Dr. Weinkle

Read his post at

Keep Breathing