Speaking to the Jeremiah 29 verse 11 Generation

I often cringe when I hear Jeremiah 29 verse 11 being
quoted. Over the past decade this has become the most quoted Scripture amongst
the Body of believers. Yet, as I listen to a new generation thriving on this
text, ones who have developed a consumerist notion of God, I become uneasy
about where this is all headed. Those who quote this Scripture so haphazardly,
in my opinion, do not understand the context nor the condition of God’s
utterance to Jeremiah concerning His people. The people were about to be taken
into exile into Babylon and God promised that they would return to again to
their native country. Yet, in the midst of their seemingly current hardship in
Babylon they were expected to still seek the peace and prosperity of the city
they were in and continue being faithful to God.

I have to ask what exactly gave rise to this generation of young
believers who are holding onto this Scripture as if their very lives depended
on it. Well, I believe it is in the way we as leaders have introduced God to
them in recent years. We have placed such an unprecedented high price on
prosperity that we have watered down the very essence of the Gospel in order to
prove our point. That God desires to prosper His people is a fact. Yet, when He
is seen by a generation of people as a vault of resources without attempting to
honour Him through diligent and faithful obedience, I am afraid we have lost
the plot altogether.

Yet, there is always hope. That hope rests in the knowledge
that we have to right that which we have wronged and present God anew to His
people. That newness is in making them understand that there is so much
substance to that particular text and that the candyfloss mentality that they
have simply cannot compare to the magnitude of His sovereign thoughts concerning us His people.