Commentary

verse 11:  “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. To give you hope and a future”

• God created you. He brought you to this earth to be born, and he wants you to have a good life (“to prosper you”). He doesn’t want you to be hurt (“and not to harm you”). He wants you to be hopeful for good things to happen in your life and for you to have a good future. That’s his plan for you. His blueprint for your life that he set in place for you. But…
• Unfortunately, living on this earth isn’t always easy, and it can be painful. Good things happen for sure, but so do bad things and experiences that can hurt us and make us sad, angry, unhappy. But that’s not God’s plan for us, it’s just part of living in this world. While we’re here on earth, that’s part of life. We will all have troubles in our lifetime, in some way. Some are worse than others. But God always has a plan (usually one that we can’t see or understand) to make things better for us at some point. God is our parent, our Father in heaven. He loves each of us. Every one of us. We are all his kids, all of us here on earth. He always always wants good for us (plans to prosper us), but he knows that lousy things will happen in our lives. He wants us to know that despite the lousy things, if we stay close to Him (by talking to Him-which is pretty much praying to Him) He will work to make things better for us (to give you hope and a future), even when it might seem to us like there’s no way things could get better, God makes a way. At some point. Maybe not exactly when we want it to happen, but when He knows it’s the right time.

verse 12:  “Then you will call on me and come pray to me, and I will listen to you.”

• God is saying that when you talk to Him, in your head or out loud, He loves that. He wants you to talk to Him, all the time. Instead of talking to yourself in your head, talk to God. Tell God your thoughts and feelings, and ask Him what you should do about things. Let Him be the person you talk to, especially when you feel like you can’t talk to anyone else about something. The more you talk to Him throughout the day, the better. Even just quick little conversations; direct them to God like you would be talking to your best friend. Then He will know that you want to be close to Him, you’ll be building a relationship with Him. He wants to be your best best friend, your brother, the person you talk to in times of trouble and times of happiness! When you talk to Him and build that friendship with Him (even though it’s in your head and it seems like you’re talking to yourself – you aren’t), God hears you talking to Him and is listening to what you want, what you need, and what you feel good or feel bad about. All of it. Just like you build a friendship with a person and get closer to them, that’s what you need to do with God. He is with you until your last day on this earth, and He wants you to know Him and to let Him help you as you go through your life.

verse 13: “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all of your heart.”

• Often people feel like God is hard to find, cuz he’s invisible. But He’s definitely here, we just can’t see Him. But if you spend your time talking to Him, and learning about Him, and getting close to Him (“You will seek me”, He’ll hear you and you’ll find Him. God stays closest to those people who spend time talking with Him each day (when you seek me with all of your heart). He hears their voice when they talk to Him.
• Think of it like this… You’re in a crowd of people and everyone is yelling and there’s lots of noise. It’s a jumble of voices. But if your best friend or mom or someone you know really well yells out your name, you’re going to hear their voice over everyone else’s voice. Because you know them so well, you hear their voice all the time, they’re important to you. You hear their voice and are able to find them in the crowd and go to them and listen to what they want to say to you. That’s sort of like it is with God. Lots of noise going on in this world, but God seeks out and listens more attentively to those people who he knows the best, the ones who he hears from all the time and those who want to know Him better. Those people who want Him/God in their life.