A Nugget from New Life Network

Scripture for the Day (August 16, 2016)

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 it prospers, you too will prosper. (Jeremiah 29:7, NIV)

Have you ever felt exiled to a particular city or area? What I mean by that is, you know you are supposed to be there but you do not particularly like that area. For example, we are presently living in Albany, GA which is my hometown. When Cheryl and I were first married we lived briefly in Albany but left after several months and said we would never return. Thirty years later we felt like we needed to return to take care of my elderly mother. We did so with the feeling that we would leave when that duty was over.

Well, we are still in Albany several years after that duty was fulfilled and asking God what He wants us to do here. We have even tried to leave several times but never could get a peace about it. Last week Cheryl came running into where I was and said, “I know what we need to do”. She read Jeremiah 29:7 to me and said that we need to start praying for the peace and prosperity of our city.

God gave this instruction to the Jewish leaders of Judah and Jerusalem that had been exiled to Babylon by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the natural, they did not want to be in Babylon any more than we want to be in Albany. But God told them to pray for the peace and prosperity of the city. He told them to multiply and not decrease; to build houses and settle down; to plant gardens and eat the produce.

To me, more than anything else, this shows the heart of God. He wants His people to prosper and be in peace wherever they are. You can see this throughout the scriptures. Examples include Paul and Silas singing praises to God while in prison (Acts 16) and the jailer and his whole household being saved; Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers (Genesis 37) and later becoming Prime Minister of Egypt; Moses, a Hebrew child marked for execution, being raised by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2); and David rising from a shepherd boy to a King (1 Samuel 16).

God wants His people to prosper and be in peace wherever they are. Cheryl has a saying and it goes like this. “You can get glad in the same pants that you got mad in.” Hello! We have a choice. Paul and Silas could have gotten all upset about the conditions that they were experiencing in prison but they chose to praise God anyway. As a result of that choice the prison doors were opened and they saw great miracles.

It is time for all of us (I’m including myself here) to seek peace and prosperity for the city to which we have been carried away to.

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant. (Psalm 35:27)

Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. (3 John 2)

 

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