Do well anywhere

“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... In crease in numbers there... Also, seek the welfare of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:5-7

This is not exactly the message I would want to hear if I was exiled in a city I did not want to be in. But this is the message that Jeremiah delivers to the Israelites. If I were them I would want to hear the message of freedom not one of settling. It must have been frustrating to see hear this from God. But, God through Jeremiah encourages them through these times. Here God wants them to do their best even if they do not like the situation they are in. Then to make matters worse for them God ask the Israelites to pray for the city they are exiled too. The Israelites must have puked after hearing this. That’s like asking a prisoner to pray for the the prison that it prospers. I bet there were expecting freedom not to settle down.

Seeking the welfare of the city is not easy when you hate the place. Now we are not in captivity but or anything, but there are times where I can’t stand being in a certain place. It’s like me living in this one part of my town. But I grew up in a totally different part of town. Not that where I live now is bad, but it’s just not exactly what I am used to. That’s just one situation. There are many other situations that I am in that I am not content with, but the lesson here I need to learn is that you need to seek the best in that situation no matter what. God wants us to strive and prosper. He wants us to do our very best in no matter what situation we are in. He wants us our lives to be an outward reflection of our faith in Him. But it’s hard, it’s not easy to be in content in situations that I don’t want to be in. But that is what God is asking. Pray for it.

Lord help me to move from one step of faith to another. I pray for the welfare of the place where I am situated no matter how bad it is.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Living with the opportunity

Matthew 25:14-15 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them. To one he gave five talents of money, to another two talents, and to another one talent, each according to his ability.” This passage has been such a difficult thing to figure out. It has been something that I have been dealing with and something that I have been longing to understand. Many people see that as that God gives you talents and you got to take your talents and live for God. But what are talents. It has been explained talent to be either your real talents, or money, or something God gives you. However, there is a distinction between talent and ability here. After reading this commentary ( http://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/matthew/living-dangerously) it seems that things make more sense here. Talent, the way we know talent, according to this passage is ability, and talent as referred to in this setting is opportunity. The property owne
Read more

When God ask you to do something crazy...

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Dibaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. -Hosea 1:2-3 Now this is kind of a crazy assignment. It’s not like he says go and build a church, or go preach to the people, or fast for the nation. No, God told him to go take a WHORE for a wife. It doesn’t even sound Biblical. But that is what you see, God giving a very different task. Hosea’s first assignment, marry a whore. God asked Hosea to do something crazy. But what you see here is that Hosea, he DOES IT!. Without question, he just does it, he is very obedient to God. Though it’s sort of a strange situation, I am encouraged by Hosea’s obedience. Now, I don’t know about you, if one of the first big assignments God gives me is to go out and marry a whore, not sure how I would take that.
Read more

He Provides Our REAL Needs

  Acts 3:6-8 Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God. The beggar was asking for gold and silver, he was asking for things that he thought would satisfy him. But in reality it wasn’t what he really needed.  God knew that his real needs differed from what he was begging for.  In those times, if you were not capable of work, or able to walk, you were just cast away to the side. Daily he was put there by someone, to just beg all day long. He did this his whole life. This is how he was born, he was regulated to fend for himself by asking for money daily.  It made sense, money equaled ability to buy food and then you are able to eat. The beggar knew his place in society  because of
Read more