Good News #217: God’s Plans for Me are Always Good; The Bad are Never from Him!

What is translated as peace in Jeremiah 29:11 is, in the original text, the Hebrew word shalom.

In the Hebrew understanding, shalom is not just peace as we know it in english.

Shalom carries with it the idea of completeness (in number), safety, soundness (in body), welfare, health, prosperity, peace, quiet, tranquility, contentment, peace, friendship in terms of human relationships, friendship with God in a covenant, peace from war.

So in reading what God said in Jeremiah 29:11, we read it with the understanding that God is saying that His thoughts toward us are thoughts of completeness, safety, soundness in body, welfare, health, prosperity, peace, quiet, tranquility, contentment, peace, friendship in terms of human relationships, friendship with God in a covenant, peace from war.

All of these (and much more) is what God wants for us and if these are not yet in our present, we can expect them to happen in our life because God Himself will see to it that His goodness will continually pursue us all the days of our life.

God is not a God who thinks evil. There is no evil in Him. God is not a God who gives evil things. There is no evil in Him so how could He give something He has none.

The gospel is this — What God has for us is goodness, goodness and abounding goodness… summarized in one word — shalom.
God wants good things for us.
God only wants good things for us.
May we learn to think of God based on who He really is.
✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨❤️✨

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11