Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, November 23, 2025
by Rev. Dr. Miles Hopgood, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: In the face of hopelessness, God bids us to live joyfully. This is impossible to do on our own strength. Thanks be to God whose promise frees us for such a life.
A question worth pondering: where does trust come from? Do we work it in ourselves, or do others work trust in us? Even as I’ve framed the question, the answer may not be as intuitive as we would like it to be. At first blush, we want to say that trust is a decision we make. After all, I’m the one who puts my trust in someone, right? But we all know that choosing to trust someone doesn’t make them trustworthy. There are friends you know you can ask to get you to the airport on time, and there are ones you know cannot be relied on. You can make the decision to ask an unreliable friend for a ride, but you also know you’ll only have yourself to blame as you watch your flight take off from security. As it turns out, our trust in someone does not come from ourselves; rather, it is something that their actions work in us. We come to trust someone because of what they do. It is their history with us that works trust in us. And while we might be able to take a risk on something small, on the really big stuff, it’s another matter.
Jeremiah is asking something big of the people today. They are in exile, their world is in complete disarray, and he is asking them to do the hardest thing one can do when all hope seems lost: to keep on living. Build community, plan for the future, strive for the welfare not only of those who suffer alongside us but those who are the cause of our suffering—that is an impossible calling. Though it may seem mundane, persisting to choose to live a daily life in the face of hopelessness a revolutionary act. The will to continue to not only live but live joyfully testifies to a conviction that life is still worth living. Our faith in God’s promise is not lived out by trying to fulfill the promise itself; it is to live the life which can only make sense in light of the promise. Confident that the one who promises us a future with hope is not only willing but capable of delivering, we are free to live the lives we will when that promise actualized, even as we wait.
Faith in the promise breaks down the barrier between present and future, enabling a type of living that is both now and not yet. Everything hinges on the one who makes the promise, however. We cannot summon the will to live this life for ourselves. Hope in the face of hopelessness only comes from somewhere outside ourselves. The good news is that God stands both outside and inside time, being at once both the creator of all that is, seen and unseen, and also the one who entered into creation and overcame death for our sake. God in Christ anchors us to live a life of daily, radical joy.
