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 NIV)

From the first time I read this verse on a wedding invitation, I loved it. Its words eloquently express God’s heart toward us. But the original recipients of this promise faced a very different situation than the start of a new life as a married couple.

The prophet Jeremiah penned the words of this promise in a letter to the people of Judah. The nation of Babylon had just captured Judah and taken its people captive. Forced into exile, the Israelites faced hardship and suffering. 

Although other prophets of the time promised a short exile lasting only two years, Jeremiah prophesied seventy years of captivity. The message God gave to Jeremiah made it clear the other prophets lied and He had not sent them. (Jeremiah 29:8-9) After the seventy years, God promised to bring His people back to the promised land. 

Imagine learning your present suffering would last, not two years, but seventy! Instead of a quick fix or rescue, God’s plan included a time of difficulty and hardship. It was at that moment Jeremiah expressed God’s promise to prosper the people and to give them hope and a future.

On the heels of the promise, Jeremiah identified one of the blessings the Israelites would receive because of their suffering:

Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12-13 NIV)

Often our troubles bring us to our knees and cause us to seek God. When this happens, He listens to us and promises we will find Him. 

God also called the Israelites to prosper during their time of captivity. He encouraged them to build homes, gardens, and families. He asked them to pray and seek the prosperity of the cities of their exile. As the cities prospered, so would the Israelites. (Jeremiah 29:4-7)

God didn’t intend for the Israelites to simply grit their teeth and endure their suffering as they waited for their release from captivity. He called them to continue living, growing, and maturing in the midst of their suffering.

In the New Testament, we see the same principle. The Apostle Peter appreciated the value of hardships:

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6-7 NIV)

Peter used the example of refining gold to explain how God uses hardships as a purifying agent. Applying heat to gold causes impurities to rise to the surface so they can be scraped off. When the process is complete, the refiner can see his own reflection in the gold. 

Difficulties in our lives work in the same way. They force our impurities into the open, so we can work to overcome them. The refining process will be complete when Jesus sees His reflection in us. 

Difficulties, hardships, and sufferings are part of the package we call life. But through them, God plans to prosper us, not to harm us. His plan gives us hope and a future.

As I continue down the road, I pray to see difficulties as part of God’s plan and to allow them to build my character and faith. Wherever the road leads you, I pray you can do the same.