Why I Hate Jeremiah 29:11

By: Kiana Blake-Chung

The pastor of my church preached a sermon in November that was based on Jeremiah 29:11, a scripture which I have always hated. (Try and change my mind in the comments if you want.) Here’s what I read to my therapist from my journal after she quoted this scripture to me on Halloween and shortly before she sent me to the psychiatric ER for a six hour hold. (I still love her— she’s just overly cautious.) 

“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 a hope and a future.” -Jeremiah 29:11, NIV

“YOU know the plans God. How does that benefit ME?! Maybe if I knew the plan I’d feel hopeful about my future. Did that ever occur to you? So okay, You have a plan, but it doesn’t seem very well thought out. Especially when it’s causing me agony to the Nth degree, to the point where I don’t even wanna stay and see if this is ever gonna turn around.” (That line is probably part of why she called the police on me.) 

“‘Not to harm you’....Not to harm me? If I don’t even want to live...how is that not harmful? If certain aspects of this plan gon’ cause that much pain? Bruh.” 

Captured by Sammuelle Daya

I personally feel like so much would feel easier if God would only clue me in to an inkling of His prosperous, hopeful future plans for me. This scripture to me feels like God is saying He has the keys to my success and my future and rather than give it to me, I’m supposed to just figure out some other way to get past the door that is keeping me from the future life that I would actually want to be living.

In the depths of my despair there is no way in which this scripture does anything other than beget intense resentment for God. This scripture is simply Not That Girl™ that everyone thinks she is.

Helpful Scriptures for Depression

I have compiled a better list of scriptures that are actually able to reach through my depressed fog and speak truth to darkness. It is my hope that every well-meaning Christian would consider using these scriptures instead, or even go looking through the Bible themselves for more inspirational verses!

Psalm 27:13

“I would have lost heart unless I believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.” NIV

My ex’s mother once pointed out this scripture for me and it has become my touchstone. Later on in that same journal entry I delared:

“I would’ve definitely tapped out by now if I didn’t have the hope that God has good things in store for me WHILE I AM ALIVE.” I think that Christians place way too much emphasis on suffering being some holy burden we are meant to endure in this lifetime only to have a paradise waiting for them in the afterlife. Any guesses as to what that doctrine makes me wanna do? Get myself a ticket on the express train to Heaven!

Romans 8:28

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. -NIV

While this scripture doesn’t have a marker for timing, it is still a source of comfort to me to know that good things can eventually come from current unfortunate events if only I am patient enough. (Which is an entirely separate issue I’m working on.) These are words have always been a source of hope, and I relay that in the entry I read to my therapist:

“If something is most definitely NOT good (painful, uncomfortable etc.) that God will work until ~something~ good comes of it. Which also means(!) that every bad and sucky thing will result in something amazing. And I have a lot of shit going on that’s not good right now. So I gotta wait. And He will do what He says He will in His word. I have His WORD. I can say I’m confident of this. This is my speck of hope. This is what I will hang onto until I absolutely cannot any longer.”

To me, that seemed like a quasi-hopeful outlook, so I don’t know why she still called the cops on me, but it is what it is.

A Youversion app generated picture.

Proverbs 23:18

“Surely there is a future [and a reward] and your hope will not be cut off.” -AMP

Isaiah 60:20

“Your sun will never set again and your moon will wane no more; the Lord will be your everlasting light and your days of sorrow will end.” -NIV

I first read Isaiah 60 the summer before junior year and this was a promise that I would come to cling to for years upon years. These were words written in an ancient book, and yet I felt like they were written just for me; a direct promise from God. I had it in writing: my heart would swell with joy, my days of sorrow would end,  I had to believe that was true even if the part of me that believed that promise was miniscule. Then again, a lot can happen with even a miniscule amount of hope.

Psalm 126: 5&6

“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” -NIV

Job 12:22

He reveals the deeps things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light. -NIV

Psalm 118: 17

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord. -KJV

Job 17: 11-12

My days have passed, my plans are shattered. Yet the desires of my heart turn night into day; in the face of the darkness light is near. -NIV

I have been in the depths of suicidal intent and was able to climb out of it because I was asked to imagine what a life I would want to live would look like. I’ve never had a shortage of imagination when it comes to that and it would always bring me instant peace, enough to get through that moment until the next followed. The desires of my heart have quite literally saved my life and I urge you to find something worth living for, it can be anything you’d like. In the grand scheme of things, any reason you can come up with is a good reason.

Psalm 119:50

My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life. -NIV

John 1:5

“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” -NIV

This is my list, if these words don’t bring you any amount of comfort, it is my most sincere prayer that you find the words that do.

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