What God Really Thinks About You.

by Esther Fleece AllenWomen

Many times in my life, I’ve come back to the promise in Jeremiah 29:11:

‘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.’

This had been my favorite verse for some time. It helped me when deciding which college to attend, what path to take, which way to turn in so many of life’s decisions. I still have a picture frame with this verse engraved on it from my high school graduation. It’s a verse many of us love, because it is a promise that God is good and wants to be good toward us.

But as my life plans were not working out as I had envisioned, I found less and less comfort in these words. Some days, this verse even seemed like a joke. It’s easy to believe that God has a good plan for your life when things are working out well, but it’s a little tougher when the path is difficult.

And my path has been difficult. Uprooting my life and moving so many times to start over, to get away from my broken past. Company layoffs and job loss. The sudden death of friends. Years of being stalked and anxiety over my safety.

I’ve gone through times when it seemed as if God’s plans were not prospering me at all; in fact, it felt like they were hurting me.

I became confused because I couldn’t see any divine “plan” for my life, much less that it was good. In fact, there were times when I thought God was taunting me. What is He trying to do? I thought. Make me tough? Make me stronger? How were His plans bringing me hope? I had yet to see this prosperity He promised. I began hating this verse, especially when it was read aloud in church or quoted at the local Christian bookstore. I really was not liking God’s “plans”!

I don’t think I’m alone in this.

But the very same God of the harvest is also the God of the desert. Could it be possible that God has sometimes thwarted my plans in order to destroy my shallow understanding of His love? Could God have allowed difficult circumstances so I could wrestle with who He really is? Maybe the messing up of our plans is exactly what we need. God will go to great lengths to squash a false gospel and repair a cracked foundation in our faith. He does this not out of anger but out of love. He knows we can miss Him completely if we misunderstand Him.

But He would not give up on me. Again and again, I kept hearing Jeremiah 29:11 echo in my heart and head.

Finally, one day, during my time away seeking healing, I begrudgingly opened my Bible to this familiar verse and asked God to give me new eyes to see what I was about to read. I couldn’t see Him clearly in the season I was in. I loved God, but it had been so long since I had sensed His presence. I had almost forgotten what He looked and sounded like. Life can be so unrecognizable in the midst of pain, and yet I decided to look up the word plans. I was surprised to learn that the original word in Hebrew is machashabah; a more literal translation is “thoughts.”

• God knows the thoughts He has toward me. And His thoughts toward me are good.

I had to read it several times to make sure I was getting this straight.

If it was true, this changed everything! I had always defined plans as “an easy life” and “prosperity,” here and now. I put time, effort, and finances into knowing those plans. And I pursued those plans. I wanted plans without pain, plans without suffering, plans without hardship.

The emphasis was on me. Me knowing the plans; me understanding the plans; me implementing the plans. But God’s machashabah — His thoughts — toward me are so much more than anything I could have ever imagined on my own. His thoughts toward me are the real constant, despite whatever circumstances I am walking through. Instead of being so fixated on the plans for my life, I realized I needed to be more interested in knowing God’s thoughts toward me.

My behavior does not determine my identity. Rather, anyone who calls on God is welcomed into the family and named a beloved son or daughter (John 1:12). I am not an employee of God;

I am a daughter of God.

My relationship with God isn’t dependent on my performance. Rather, all our sins are forgiven and washed away in Jesus, who canceled all our debt and nailed it to the cross (Colossians 2:13-14).

And I don’t have to try to make something happen. Rather, God is working in me to give me the desire and power to do what pleases Him (Philippians 2:13).

Part of the reason I had resisted making myself vulnerable to God was that I didn’t think His thoughts toward me were good at all. I thought He wanted to discipline me, scold me, or point out something wrong with me.

I had often heard people talk about the difference between the punishing God of the Old Testament and the loving God in the New Testament. But the truth of the matter is that God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and that God is love (1 John 4:8).

God knows everything about each one of us (Psalm 139:1), and we were each made in His image (Genesis 1:27). We don’t have to fear what God thinks about us because He always, always looks at us with love.

Even if you weren’t treasured by your earthly parents, the God of the universe treasures you, and His thoughts about you are always good. He chose you when He planned creation (Ephesians 1:11-12), and you are not a mistake (Psalm 139:15-16). He brought you forth on the day you were born (Psalm 71:6), and His thoughts toward you are countless — like the grains of sand on the shore (Psalm 139:17-18). You are really, truly, deeply loved by God.

When we learn to lament out loud, we allow God to correct our misconceptions about how He sees us and thinks of us. God was not angry with me and was not taunting me. I didn’t understand the difference between God’s pruning (John 15:2) and God’s disciplining (Hebrews 12:6). Although very different, they often feel the same, because pain is pain. So whether we are being pruned by God to bear good fruit or are being disciplined by a loving Father, conviction and correction still hurt. But this is when it becomes crucial to be confident that

God’s thoughts toward us are always good.

Over time, knowing God’s good thoughts toward me dramatically changed my understanding of God and, therefore, my perspective on what He wanted to do in my life. When I did not see God as loving, I did not believe I was worth receiving love. When I did not understand God as kind, I saw evil in my life as something He caused. Of course He would want this understanding to change! As I learned to lament, I also learned how to wrestle with Him — asking the hard questions, engaging Him with my doubt and pain, asking Him for the faith to feel — and when I wrestle with God, I get the chance to look Him in the eye, hand to hand, heart to heart. God never tries to one-up me or make me look bad. He wants to woo me into a deeper and more satisfying relationship with Him. God has taught me to not despise my struggles, because my wrestling is proof that I am in relationship with Him. He would much rather have me wrestle with Him than to be out of the game.

When our hearts are breaking, it’s natural to wonder:

• If God is so good, then why does He allow evil and suffering to exist?
• If God is so loving, then why is there only one way to heaven?
• If God cared, then why wouldn’t He stop the hard things from happening?

The key is to take these questions to God rather than use them as an excuse to disengage. What would happen if we took our grief directly to Him? What if instead of gossiping and grumbling about God, we used our questions to draw closer to Him? He can take it. In fact, He wants to hear them.

The greatest gift that has come from my suffering is a deeper understanding of the character of God and His thoughts toward me.

This is why we are blessed when we mourn. This is why we must take time to mourn. Admitting grief over loss does not mean we are ungrateful for God’s provision. Lamenting actually deepens our gratitude, giving us the capacity to be more receptive to the blessings that do come.

It was only in adulthood, after I had learned to lament the loss of my biological family, that I could give thanks for the way I experienced God’s care and provision through friends, and even strangers. I learned that family is so much deeper than blood; family is spiritual. Jesus demonstrated that for us when he left His own family to create the family of God for others who had no place to call home. Orphans are close to the Father’s heart, and He cares deeply about their pain. Abandonment is not beautiful, but being found in God is. We never have to audition for God’s family or go through a trial period. When we are in His family, we are in!

It’s not that God celebrates grief or that He brings it on; but God does promise us His presence and blessing in the midst of it. “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit,” the psalmist tells us (Psalm 34:18).

A lament will not be the end of our story. My friend and pastor Louie Giglio has said, “If it is not good, then God is not done.” What wise words!

When we are insecure in God’s love for us, we will assume the worst of Him. I had been doing this for years. And it finally broke on that dark night in my hotel room as I stumbled into the language of lament. But when we are secure in how God really sees us, it brings us back to the truth of who He is and to His promises for us.

Whatever you are going through, knowing that God’s thoughts toward you are always good should help you endure. Further study into this passage showed me that Jeremiah, a weeping prophet, was address- ing captives. He was not addressing high school graduates or rising-star professionals or budding talent; he was addressing people who would be in captivity in Babylon for nearly seventy years. Knowing God’s good thoughts toward them was the only thing that got the Israelites through years of captivity. And knowing God’s goodness will not only help us to endure; it also gives us the confidence that no matter what life brings our way, His thoughts toward us are loving!

When we are secure in God’s love for us, when we know how He really feels about us, we are free to ask and tell Him anything. We can “approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). And that is His hope for us exactly — to come to Him even, and especially, when life falls apart.

Romans 1:17

“For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

King James Version (KJV).

What does it mean that God is with us?

Question

Answer
It is good to know that God is omnipresent (everywhere at one time)—it is one of His attributes. Coinciding with His omnipresence are the attributes of omniscience (all knowledge) and omnipotence (all power). These concepts are a bit much for us humans to comprehend, but God knows that, too (Isaiah 55:8). God fills His creation and is universally present in person, in understanding, and in power at all times. “He is not far from any one of us” (Acts 17:27).

On a more personal level, God is with all believers today in that His Holy Spirit indwells us. This indwelling can only happen if one is born again (John 3:3). First John 5:11-12tells us it is Jesus who indwells us: “This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” And Jesus said the Father comes to abide with us: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).

In Galatians 2:20 Paul says, “Christ lives in me.” Then in 3:5 he says that God has given us His Spirit. In verses 26-27, he says that believers are “baptized into Christ” and are “clothed” with Christ. (God is as close as our clothing!) Galatians 5 then discusses the fruit of the Spirit and states in verse 25, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” With many such verses as these, it is clear that God is in three Persons and that all Three dwell in all born-again believers—at all times (Matthew 28:20).

One of Jesus’ titles is “Immanuel,” which means “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). When Jesus came into this world, He was truly, literally “God with us.” Because God is with us, we know that we will never be separated from His love (Romans 8:38-39). God’s presence assures us that we can accomplish His will for us (1 Chronicles 22:17-19). God’s presence overcomes our fear, worry, and dissatisfaction (Hebrews 13:5).

The Holy Spirit in us is always praying for us (Romans 8:26). We are told to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17), which means we should maintain an attitude of prayer and receptiveness in order to verbalize prayer to God whenever He leads. He is near to His children, attentive to their cry (Psalm 34:15).

We should verify that we are indeed walking with the Lord our God by often consulting His Word, fellowshipping with other believers, and seeking godly counsel from pastors, Christian counselors, and Christian friends. We should have the attitude that we are at all times in ministry with the Lord. The Holy Spirit will lead us. We will see God at work. God is alive, and He is near. He wants to communicate and commune with us. That is the joy of the Christian life.

Why Did God Reject Cain?

Why did God reject Cain? Why was his offering and worship not accepted while Abel’s pleased the Eternal?

First, let us examine the scriptures concerning your question about why Cain was rejected by God. We are first informed that Abel (the younger of the two men) was a shepherd of sheep while his brother was a farmer (Genesis 4:2).

When the time came to make an offering to God, Abel chooses to bring and kill a firstborn animal from his flock. His brother, however, offered some of his crops toward his worship of God (verses 3 and 4). The response both received clearly conveyed whether what they did was pleasing or not.

“And the Lord respected Abel and his offering, but he DID NOT RESPECT CAIN AND HIS OFFERING . . .” (Genesis 4:2 – 5).

Three factors

Many have speculated as to why the offerings were not respected. Three factors, however, can be safely assumed as contributing to the displeasure of God. The first is the attitude of mind in regard to the offerings. The second is the quality of the offerings. The third is the worship that was not done in
faith.

Cain and Abel

John Cheere, 1755

When one considers the jealousy of Cain toward his brother that drove him to murder him, a poor attitude in giving offerings to God is very plausible. This attitude was likely a factor in offering to him poor quality products rather than the very best.

The Bible does reveal God’s response, in general, to offerings that are not of the quality He commands.

You offer defiled bread upon My altar. And you say, ‘In what way do we defile You?’ . . . And if you offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And if you offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil? (Malachi 1:7, HBFV).

The mental attitude of Cain was a key factor in displeasing God. Our Father knows man’s inner thoughts. The Apostle Paul’s writings attest to the fact that while He may like a person who is generous, he loves those who do so out of a heart of cheerfulness and not grudgingly (2Corinthians 9:7).

Faith in God

In the well-known faith chapter of the New Testament, Hebrews 11, the apostle Paul makes it abundantly clear that Abel had faith in God but that, by implication, his brother lacked it. 

By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it, though he died, he is yet speaking (Hebrews 11:4, HBFV).

Our human nature not only can think evil and hinder us to do good works, but it can also dispose us toward those who reject evil and are doers of good works like Abel. Jesus himself attested to his righteousness when he was roundly chastising the Pharisees for their attitude and behavior.

You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how shall you escape the judgment of Gehenna? Because of this, behold, I send to you prophets . . . So that upon you may come all the righteous blood poured out upon the earth, from the blood of Abel the righteous . . . (Matthew 23:33 – 35).

We can acquire more of the mind of Christ, and not have our heavenly Father reject us like Cain, by constantly studying His word. If we do not do this, our minds can easily be led to being deceived by the devil who is “the god of this age . . .” (2Corinthians 4:4).

Why Is Jeremiah Known as ‘The Weeping Prophet’?

More than once, Jeremiah was tempted to hang up his prophet’s hat and go home. He wept over his nation’s self-destructive rebellion against God and cried out to the Lord. The Lord’s promise of protection didn’t exclude the possibility of having to endure great pain.

David Sanford

Claims to fame: Jesus, some said, was Jeremiah back from the dead (Matthew 16:14). The Book of Jeremiah has more words than any other book of the Bible. Jeremiah described God’s inspiration of Scripture in far more detail than any other prophet.

Jeremiah spoke more about repentance (turning from sin back to God) than the other prophets. Jeremiah also wrote Lamentations and may have contributed other writings (2 Kings; Psalms).

He has often been called “the weeping prophet.” He frequently felt despondent, saw no visible fruit after decades of ministry, and (almost but) never quit.

Jeremiah never had the joy and comfort of being married. Jeremiah predicted the Babylonian captivity and its length, 70 years (Jeremiah 25:11-12; Jeremiah 29:10).

Jeremiah’s Relevance

Like thousands of army recruits, Jeremiah was drafted into a vocation where ongoing enemy assaults were all but guaranteed. But unlike other soldiers, Jeremiah had the Lord’s assurance that he would survive.

The Lord enlisted young Jeremiah for life. His only mission? To proclaim the Lord’s message without fear.

Sure enough, those who did not want to hear God’s truth attacked Jeremiah repeatedly and from every angle. Over the years, his fellow citizens fanned rumors into flame and hoped to watch him burn.

Jeremiah’s enemies imprisoned him, flogged him, put him in stocks, and made preparations for his execution. Later, they threw him into a muddy cistern and left him to die. Even former friends sought to take their revenge against the man from Anathoth.

Each time, the Lord rescued Jeremiah — but not always before he was scarred. His foes definitely couldn’t kill him — but they could wound him. The Lord’s promise of protection didn’t exclude the possibility of having to endure great pain.

More than once, Jeremiah was tempted to hang up his prophet’s hat and go home. He agonized over the prosperity of the wicked while he suffered miserably.

He felt so miserable he wished he’d never been born. He wept over his nation’s self-destructive rebellion against God and cried out to the Lord because of his own incurable wound.

Like Jeremiah, we are promised persecution (John 15:18-21; 2 Timothy 3:12). Like him, we can also hold onto the promise of the Lord’s protecting presence (Matthew 28:20; John 16:33).

And we can rest assured that while pain and problems are inevitable, they cannot stop us from fulfilling God’s will in this generation (Romans 8:35-39).

The Book of Jeremiah

This second of four “major” Old Testament prophets urges readers to come back to the Lord.

The theme of returning or coming back recurs nearly 50 times in Jeremiah. The prophet urges his fellow citizens in the kingdom of Judah to repent and turn back to the Lord — before it’s too late.

The Lord calls Jeremiah to prophesy when he is still a very young man (chapter 1). More than a century has passed since Isaiah began prophesying. The kingdom of Israel had fallen three generations ago.

Now, the Lord says, it’s Judah’s turn because of its pride, idolatry, and oppression of the poor. For more than 40 years, Jeremiah warns of impending judgment against Judah (chapters 2-38), but virtually no one heeds his warnings to repent.

As predicted, the kingdom of Judah is finally crushed (chapter 39). The surviving remnant refuses to repent and continues to rebel against the Lord (chapters 40-44).

Toward the end of the book, Jeremiah includes a brief warning to his assistant, Baruch (chapter 45), and a series of prophecies against other nations (chapters 46-51).

A historical appendix (chapter 52) adds more details about the utter destruction of Judah’s capital, Jerusalem.

Scriptures about Jeremiah

If you’re going to read only three Bible chapters about Jeremiah’s calling and prophetic ministry, take 10 minutes and read Jeremiah 1 and Jeremiah 32-33. Or take three minutes and read the beginning of the story, Jeremiah 1.

Most of Jeremiah’s story is told in the Book of Jeremiah itself. His calling and persecutions were intense, memorable, and more autobiographical than any other prophet.

What’s more, his prophecies about the Babylonian captivity and its length, and about the New Covenant, continue to be cited daily 2,500 years later.

He’s also well known for buying a piece of property as a sign that the Jewish people would return and dwell in the land 70 years later.

That isn’t all that we read about Jeremiah. Jeremiah’s name appears in 2 Chronicles 35:25, which says, “Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the male and female singers commemorate Josiah in the laments. These became a tradition in Israel and are written in the Laments.”

His name also appears in 2 Chronicles 36:12, which says the last king of Judah, Zedekiah, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord.”

His name appears yet again in 2 Chronicles 36:21, which says, “The land [of Judah] enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah.”

What’s more, 2 Chronicles 36:22 and Ezra 1:1 both say, “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing.”

Jeremiah’s name comes up again in Daniel 9:2, which says, “in the first year of his [Darius’s] reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years.”

Quotations and allusions to Jeremiah’s writings appear repeatedly in the New Testament. Jeremiah 6:16 says, “And you will find rest for your souls,” which Jesus echoes in Matthew 11:29.

Jeremiah 7:11 says, “Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers,” which Jesus echoes in Matthew 21:13, Mark 11:17, and Luke 19:46.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord.” Paul echoes these verses in 1 Corinthians 1:31 and 1 Corinthians 10:17.

Jeremiah 31:15 says, “Rachel is weeping for her children; She refuses to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more,” which is quoted verbatim in Matthew 2:17-18.

Jeremiah 31:31-34 talks at length about the New Covenant, which is reiterated both in Hebrews 8:8-12 and Hebrews 10:16-17.