via TJC
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all 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 may 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 it prospers, you too will prosper.” Jeremiah 29:4-7
An “exile” is someone who is barred from their native country. Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await the return of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Phillipians 3:20). Until then, we are exiles in the world just like Jeremiah in Babylon.
God wants us to seek peace and prosperity in the towns where we live. He wants us to pray for our towns. He wants his people to find one another. He wants us to grow in number. He wants us to follow his ways while living here, in exile.
Daily Battle Order:
What address are you really from - the one with your house or the one with the home of God? What is your and your family’s town-level strategy to seek out and live by the rules of the Kingdom of God as a Christian? It can’t be nothing. Do you have a church? Are you praying for and contributing to God’s peace in your town? Do you have a strategy to help family, friends, neighbors and even strangers seek the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ?
Love the passage. Convicting question about strategy.