What It Really Means to Trust God’s Plan During Uncertainty — Especially When Building a Business Like AHHA Co
Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most quoted verses in modern Christian circles:
“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 hope and a future.”
It’s embroidered on graduation gifts, used in vision boards, and pinned to the walls of entrepreneurs stepping into the unknown. At AHHA Co, this verse surfaced more than once during the early brainstorming sessions — a kind of spiritual North Star. But what does it really mean to trust God’s plan when the path ahead is foggy, messy, or slow-moving?
1. Why This Verse Matters Today
Jeremiah 29:11 is everywhere — in greeting cards, vision journals, graduation speeches, and, often, taped to the wall above a laptop during a late-night work session. The verse is powerful, poetic, and brimming with promise: “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 hope and a future.” It’s the kind of verse people lean on when they don’t know what’s next — and for good reason.
But as commonly as this verse is quoted, it’s also commonly misunderstood. Too often, it’s treated like a divine guarantee of comfort, clarity, or quick success. The idea that God has “a plan” gets interpreted as everything falling neatly into place — right job, right opportunity, right timing. In reality, Jeremiah 29:11 wasn’t written for people on the brink of promotion — it was written to people in exile.
At AHHA Co, we found ourselves returning to this verse often in the early stages of launching. Not as a slogan, but as a stabilizer. Starting something new — especially something that’s rooted in faith — brings a mix of excitement and anxiety. You dream of impact, but face slow traction. You have clarity of purpose, but not always clarity of process. Jeremiah 29:11 became a reminder not of an easy path, but of a purposeful one.
That subtle shift in interpretation made all the difference. It reframed how we measured success. Instead of expecting a straight road to our vision, we began looking for signs of God’s faithfulness in the detours, the long silences, and the learning curves. This verse became less about the outcome and more about the outlook.
2. The Verse in Its Original Context
To really understand Jeremiah 29:11, we have to look at who it was written to — and why. The Israelites had just been forcibly removed from their homeland and sent into exile in Babylon. Their temple was destroyed. Their sense of identity and security had been shattered. It was a time of deep disorientation. Into this chaos, the prophet Jeremiah speaks a surprising word from God: settle in, build homes, plant gardens, and seek peace in the city you’re stuck in — you’re going to be here for a while.
This isn’t what they expected. The people had hoped for a quick rescue — a dramatic, divine reversal. Instead, God tells them they’ll be there for seventy years before restoration comes. Jeremiah 29:11 is a promise — but it’s a long-term one. God assures them that the story isn’t over, that their future is still secure — but He doesn’t offer an escape hatch. He offers hope in the tension, not rescue from it.
This context matters deeply when we try to apply the verse to our modern lives — and especially to something like entrepreneurship. At AHHA Co, we didn’t enter exile, but we did enter the unknown. We had a big vision: to create work that honors creativity, faith, and purpose. But early on, we were confronted by limitations — limited resources, unclear timelines, and unpredictable markets. Like the exiles in Babylon, we had to choose: despair over the delay, or trust that God was still writing something meaningful in the midst of the mess.
Understanding the original context taught us that God’s promises don’t expire in uncertain seasons — in fact, they often begin there. The “plan to prosper” wasn’t about avoiding difficulty; it was about discovering God’s faithfulness inside it. This gave us permission to be honest about the hard parts of building something new, while still holding on to hope.
3. Misunderstanding the Word “Prosper”
One of the most important insights about Jeremiah 29:11 is that the word “prosper” in Hebrew is shalom — a word that means far more than financial success or smooth circumstances. Shalom implies wholeness, peace, flourishing, and right relationships. It’s not a quick win; it’s a deep well-being. That changes everything.
When we think of “prosper,” especially in the business world, we tend to think in numbers — revenue growth, investor backing, social media reach. And while those are valid metrics, they’re not always signs of divine blessing. At AHHA Co, we had to wrestle with this early on. Would we only call ourselves “successful” if we scaled quickly? Or could we define prosperity as creating something meaningful, sustainable, and rooted in our values — even if it unfolded slowly?
The biblical view of prosperity invites us to reframe how we define value. For us, prosperity became about staying aligned with our mission, stewarding our time and talents well, and serving our community with integrity — whether that meant 100 followers or 10,000. That doesn’t mean we didn’t dream big — it means we let our dream be shaped by a deeper kind of success.
So when we say “God has a plan to prosper us,” we’re not banking on a brand blow-up. We’re trusting that as we remain faithful, God will shape our work into something whole — something that brings peace, impact, and sustainability, even in a culture obsessed with speed and spectacle.
4. Trusting the Process — Not Skipping It
One of the hardest parts about Jeremiah 29:11 is the unspoken reality behind it: you can’t rush the promise. God doesn’t promise instant breakthrough — He promises presence and purpose in the waiting. For the Israelites, that meant 70 years. For entrepreneurs or creators, it might mean seasons of uncertainty, reinvention, or slow momentum.
When we started AHHA Co, we had a strong conviction about what we were building, but no roadmap for how it would all come together. We tried ideas that didn’t stick. We had long periods of silence where it felt like no one was watching. We questioned our timing. We wondered if we were too early, too niche, too unknown. But again and again, this verse reminded us: if God has a plan, it includes this part too.
Trusting the process isn’t passive — it’s deeply active. It means showing up every day, doing the work, taking the next step — not because success is guaranteed, but because God is present. It means building in Babylon, planting seeds even when the soil feels foreign, and believing that what looks small now may still carry long-term fruit.
And ironically, it’s in the waiting that character is formed. The parts of AHHA Co that we’re most proud of — the clarity of our mission, the intentionality of our culture, the depth of our content — were shaped in seasons when we weren’t “prospering” by the world’s standards. But God was doing exactly what He promised: giving us hope, shaping our future.
5. How It Shapes Business, Goals, and Personal Dreams
Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t just a business blueprint — it’s a framework for how to approach life’s uncertainties, whether you’re launching a company, starting over, changing careers, or chasing a deeply personal dream. It reminds us that God’s plans are not just about productivity — they are about purpose. This promise gives space to breathe, to build, and to believe even when the path isn’t clear.
At AHHA Co, we’ve experienced firsthand how this verse shaped our vision. It taught us to lead with faith rather than fear, to define success by depth rather than speed, and to believe that impact often grows underground before it shows above the surface. But this principle isn’t exclusive to organizations — it’s deeply personal too. If you’re in a season of questioning what’s next — in your career, your art, your family, your health — this verse offers more than comfort. It offers alignment. You don’t have to know every step to know you’re on the right path.
One of the biggest shifts Jeremiah 29:11 invites us into is releasing our tight grip on timing and outcomes. It’s easy to treat our dreams like tasks: to be checked off, achieved quickly, and broadcast widely. But what if God is more interested in forming you through the process than fast-tracking your arrival? Whether you’re launching a business, writing a book, applying to grad school, or simply trying to heal — God is in it. He doesn’t promise shortcuts. He promises that He knows the plan, and that His plan leads to peace, purpose, and a future worth hoping for.
For every dreamer, builder, and believer — this truth levels the pressure. You don’t have to force your way forward. You just have to be faithful with what’s in front of you. That’s what we’re learning at AHHA Co. We’re building with our hands open — committed to the process, grounded in purpose, and confident that the One who called us knows exactly where we’re going. And that kind of hope? It’s enough to keep moving.
Conclusion: Building with Hope, Not Hype
Jeremiah 29:11 isn’t a promise of ease — it’s a promise of presence, purpose, and a future that’s worth trusting God for, even when you can’t see it. For us at AHHA Co, that truth has been an anchor. We didn’t start this company with guarantees. We started it with conviction — that meaningful, hope-filled work matters, and that God is just as present in the process as He is in the outcome.
Trusting God’s plan doesn’t mean everything will go the way we expect. It means that even when the timeline stretches, even when the metrics stall, and even when our confidence wavers, the story is still moving forward. He is not rushed, and He is never random. His plan includes the learning, the pivoting, the waiting — and yes, the prospering. But prospering His way.
If you’re building something — a business, a creative endeavor, a new season of life — and it feels slow, uncertain, or stuck, Jeremiah 29:11 is for you. Not as a shortcut, but as a sustaining truth: God has not forgotten you. He is forming something in you and through you that will last. Keep planting. Keep building. Keep trusting the Author of the plan.
That’s what we’re doing here at AHHA Co — building slowly, faithfully, and with hope. And maybe that’s exactly what prosperity looks like.