Jer.29:11 (NIV); 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.
(KJV); For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
God’s thoughts are not exactly the same as man’s thought, in time and space. This is one of the explanations for apparently unanswered prayers. Man’s good is submerged in God’s good. Man’s thoughts and thinking capacity is finite while God’s thoughts and capacity are infinite. When one considers the temporary discomfort or negativity experienced by Habakkuk and Joseph, these negativities were of varying length of time, which means time is a variable in the equation. However, in the long run or long term or long game, the negativity experienced by man turns to God and man’s good. A mathematical point in time and space where God’s good equals man’s good. The end point or end game.
Psalm 139:16-17; Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them.
Matthew 10:29-31; Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
Romans 8:28-29; And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.
Through selection or the analogy of fishing (by God the Father and God the Son), we have 1 Peter 2:9; But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
In addition, Peter goes on further in 2 Peter 1:3-4; His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
The same principle from Peter was reiterated by Paul in Ephesians 1:4-5; For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.
The purpose of these chosen people is stated in Ephesians 2:10; For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
The totality of God’s good is infinitely greater than one person’s good, a person’s good is submerged in God’s greater good, this is the point made by Paul in 1 Timothy 2:3-4; This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
Several times, God repeatedly gives His chosen people assurance, such as in Psalm 94:14; For the Lord will not reject his people; he will never forsake his inheritance. And in Exodus 19:5-6; Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’
Furthermore, God guaranteed us that He will never desert us, in Joshua 1:9; Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. This guarantee given by God through Joshua was earlier given by God through Moses, which Moses then passed on to Joshua in Deuteronomy 31:8; The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” This guarantee was transformed and elevated into the stratosphere and given the Seal of Infinity by the Holy Spirit in Paul’s epistle to the Romans 8:38-39; For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The kingdom of God is here now and amongst us, and eternity with God starts now before the “state” (physical to spiritual)transition or death or shedding of the physical body to assume the spiritual body, the Holy Spirit informs us of this in Revelation 21:3-4; God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.
The expected end prophesied by Jeremiah in 29:11, is eternity with God, eternity can be defined as infinite or unending time or a state to which time has no application; timelessness, the end game or final state, endless life after death, declared to us in the gospel of John 3:16; For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Furthermore, Jesus Christ explained in John 4:14; but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” That the eternal life is with God is clarified by Jesus Christ in John 14:2-3; My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. This is confirmed by apostle Paul in Romans 6:22; But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
