If God loves me, why?

{Jeremiah 29:11}
For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Soon after I surrendered my life to Christ, I struggled with pain from my past that made me doubt God's promises for my future. I thought, if God loves me, why has he allowed so much hurt in my life?

Why did he allow my family to be broken by adultery and divorce, shaken by alcohol and drug addictions and so much more? Why didn't he prevent the pain I brought on myself?
Jeremiah 29 records a letter that the prophet wrote from Jerusalem in 597 BC to a group of his fellow Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon. Surely they were questioning God's heart too.

Eventually, I shared my struggles with a friend who read Jeremiah 29:11 to me. She said god wanted to heal my hurts and redeem my pain. If I'd let him, he'd weave my healing into his purposes for my future. But how would I find hope, healing and the plans God had for me?

The answer was in the premise that follows his promise: "In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me." (Jeremiah 29:12-13)
We find God's plans when we surrender ours to him. Day by day, moment by moment we are to seek him and let him love us into a place of hope and healing. Just as he restored the Israelites after the Babylonian exile, he restores us through our relationship with him, beings purpose to our pain, redemption from our past and hope for our future!
-Renee Swope

{Psalm 71:20}
You have allowed me to suffer much hardship,
but you will restore me to life again
and lift me up from the depths of the earth.

{Proverbs 16:3}
Commit your actions to the Lord,
and your plans will succeed.

{Revelation 22:1-5}
1 Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
2 It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.
3 No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.
4 And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.
5 And there will be no night there—no need for lamps or sun—for the Lord God will shine on them. And they will reign forever and ever.