“This is what the Lord Almighty God of Israel says to those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ‘Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too will have sons and daughters. Increase in number there, do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if they prosper, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29: 4-7
Have you ever found yourself somewhere unexpected, and a place you didn’t want to be?
How do you handle yourself in those situations? Do you plod through it grumbling all the while?
In Jeremiah 29, we find a group of exiles ousted out of Jerusalem by King Nebuchadnezzar, and sent to Babylon.
Exiles.
The people didn’t get to pack a suitcase and move in leisure. They were sent, not given time or permission to pack precious possessions. They probably arrived in Babylon tired, hungry, and more than a little disgruntled.
Homes gone.
Jobs gone.
Familiarity gone.
Yet, hopefully, they arrived with a deep faith still intact.
God spoke to Jeremiah to encourage these exiles. In essence, live your lives, and live them abundantly! Build your homes, plant your gardens, (you’ll be here for the harvest!)
This was probably not where they wanted to go. But here was peaceful and it was prosperous.
God didn’t want His people cursing this locale, their situation, or anything at all. He wanted His people at peace. He wanted them to prosper. He wanted them to pray for this place, for the people where He had led them.
They could choose to allow bitterness to burrow in their hearts. That bitterness could have caused curses to roll off their tongues aimed at the city, at the King, even at God, for allowing this.
Or, they could embrace whatever God was doing and obey His command to live there peacefully. and faithfully.
Sometimes we have a hard time seeing past the situation. We only know that we are not where we intended to be. Where we wanted to be. Where, we envisioned, we needed to be.
But we are exactly where God has placed us.
Reflections:
Monday: How’s my attitude when I am placed outside my comfort zone? How do I want to change it?
Tuesday: Reflect back over your life to a time when you really ended up where you didn’t want to be. How did God use it for your good?
Wednesday: Are you or is someone you know currently placed where there’s no desire to be? How can you encourage someone else, or focus yourself on Philippians 4:8-9?
Thursday: Are you someone who likes to know where you are going and when it will all happen? (Not that I would know anything about that personality quirk!) Pray to God, surrendering your plans, your heart, and your life to Him. Ask Him to give you the strength to surrender again, every time, you try to reclaim your plans.
Friday: Thank God for His plans for your life. Not one of us knows how things will turn out, how long our lives will be, but He does. And He is good. We can rest assured in Him, that promise in Jeremiah 29:11 “‘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 a hope and a future.”