Right Where You Are – Week One

I started a new habit. In the morning, when I pray, I review a series of declarations. Each truth is based on a Scripture that has challenged or convicted me recently. This practice is helping me learn to live the life God has called me to. It allows me to measure my actions and attitudes against God’s word and my desire to live it out. 

Not long ago, I added a new declaration, one that I want to share with you and challenge you to ponder with me:

I invest and fully engage right where I am. 

“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” Jeremiah 29:7 NASB

Often my dreams of a better or different future leave me discontent and frustrated. And while I know, there is a holy discontent and a stirring that pushes us forward in faith, I also know there is unsettledness that reveals discord in my soul. I often wrestle to understand what is me and what is God. How do I know when to stay or when to go? When do I push forward, and when do I need to embrace today? When do I take a step of faith, and when do I wait?

Maybe it is this restlessness that draws me to the story of the Israelites. The author of Hebrews urges us to learn from the Israelites and not follow their poor example of turning from God. These men and women had every opportunity to know God and embrace His purpose, but with a few notable exceptions, they missed out on what was right in front of them – a chance to love God and love people. 

 The Old Testament shares their journey, which was anything but straightforward. Abraham was declared the father of this coming nation long before he had a son. Eventually, he and Sarah have a child. Despite the family feuding, the number of descendants grows. But when famine hits the land, they soon find themselves transplanted and enslaved in the land of Egypt. 

Generations after generations served as slaves until God called Moses to lead His people out of Egypt. Finally free, the Israelites were like a fish out of water. They didn’t know what to do or how to follow God. Instead of embracing God’s ways, they stuck to their own, resulting in 40 years of wandering the desert. 

Thankfully, the next generation chose to follow God and claim His promises. After hundreds of years, the land God had given Abraham was finally inhabited by Abraham’s descendants. But the up and down continued. The Israelites cycled between following God and rebellion. Eventually, a kingdom was established and then divided in two. Some kings were good, but more were evil. 

Sadly, instead of thriving as a nation, Israel turned from God. Knowing that He needed to reclaim their hearts, God allowed a foreign country to carry them into captivity. But even in this hardship, He promised restoration. The exile was temporary. God had a different long-term plan. 

In this particular season of exile, God used a man named Jeremiah to remind the Israelites of His promises. You will probably recognize these words, 

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

Like us, the Israelites could find hope in God’s plan and purpose. Living in captivity was not their final stop. And where you are right now is not your final stop either. 

But despite this future hope, Israel was “stuck” for another seventy years. Knowing and even believing God’s promise didn’t change the fact that they were staying put.

What do we do when we are in the in-between places? We know God has more, but that more is not yet. Maybe we know why and perhaps we don’t, but what we do know is that we are right where we are today. 

If we look at all of Jeremiah 29, we see that Jeremiah directly addresses these questions of how to live in the “in-between.” It was while the Israelites were in Babylon, a foreign city and a place of exile, they were given these instructions: 

“Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiple their and not decrease. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.” Jeremiah 29:5-7

What do you notice when you hear those words?

A few things I notice:

• Even exile was not an excuse to stop living. God commanded them to build, plant, and eat during their captivity. 
• Captivity was a time for thriving and multiplication, not for withering away. 
• God wants His people to be a blessing. The city where they were living was a place for them to invest and give back. 
• Israel should pray to God on behalf of their city, i.e., their captors. 
• Focusing on the good of others would increase their own welfare. 

I don’t know where you are, but this I do know, it is a place you can thrive, invest, and bless. Over the next few weeks, we will be diving deeper into what it looks like to embrace today while still dreaming for tomorrow. I hope you will be encouraged and challenged to look inside and choose to flourish right where you are!