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Reflections on Jeremiah 29 - Part 4
We've been studying Jeremiah 29 with this series of posts. You can read parts one, two, and three if you need to catch up.
God's good plan starts right where we are.
A lot of times we think that God's good plan can only kick into gear if we're in a different location with different circumstances. Have you ever felt that way? "I'm here but I should be over there. And if I could get over there—a different job, a different relationship, a different church, a different season of life—then I could really be a part of God's plan."
I think that's how the exiles Jeremiah wrote to must have felt. They were Jews in Babylon. They were supposed to be in Jerusalem. That's where the Temple was. That's where God was. They didn't want to be here, they wanted to be there. But God reveals to them, I'm here. I'm God in Babylon, too. My good plan for you starts here. Right where you are. Right now.
Look at verses 5-6:
Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease.They're going to be in Babylon 70 years. God doesn't say, "This in-between time is meaningless." Instead he says, "Get to work. My good plan for you isn't on hold. It's happening now." This is a radical instruction from Jeremiah. They want a ticket out of town. They want to sulk and complain and moan. God says, settle down and live your life. This is part of my purpose.
And notice that the good plan of God involves the mundane and normal. He says, build a house and live in it. Get married and make babies. Make lots of babies.
We need to make note of this. Sometimes we think that, if we're really a part of God's work, we'll be doing something abnormal—real life will stop and we'll go into a different plane of existence. Do you ever think that way? Do you ever think that only people who are in full-time ministry are really doing something for God?
Do you ever think that if you want to really serve God you have to be a pastor or a missionary or work for a Christian organization? That's not true.
In his book Christian Mission in the Modern World
You can serve God and man by being a lawyer, a teacher, a mechanic, a film maker, a farmer, a statesman, an accountant, a vet, a home maker—the list is endless. In all of these vocations we are called to serve God and our fellow man.
Being a businessman or tradesmen is not just a way to earn money to fund the church; it's not just an chance to witness to co-workers. It is in itself an act of worship and service. You are fulfilling God's mandate to subdue the earth and manage his creation. And when you work with integrity and skill and creativity you are glorifying God. That secular job is a spiritual, holy activity!
Do you think you're on hold, waiting for God's good plan to start? You're wrong! God's good plan is now. Get to work. Do something intensely spiritual: Plant a garden. Get a job. Build a house. Get married and bear sons and daughters. Get your sons and daughters married off and let them bear offspring. Spoil your grandkids.
Don't think that your life is on hold. Don't think that you're waiting for Gods plan to get started. God's plan is right now.
To the students: do you realize that this time of studying and homework and exerting yourself is a spiritual activity? God wants you to prepare yourself so that you can be useful to Him. So work hard and gain the skills you need to excel in the field God has called you to.
I believe Christians should be the most ambitious people on the planet because everything we do has eternal significance when it's done for the glory of God.
So let me give this challenge to young adults—especially the young men—are your secular neighbors more ambitious than you? Are they working harder in their studies than you? Is that how it should be? Should the drive for money and fame and success be a greater motivation for them than a Christian's motivation to know and please the living God?
What excuse do you have? Is God glorified when your only ambition is to get a higher score in whatever video game you're playing? Brothers, God has called you to glorify Him in this world, to be used by Him in this world. He's called you to go into the market place, to go into government, to go into medicine, to change effect this world for the glory of God.
So get to work! That's what this passage is saying when it says, "Plant a garden. Build a house. Marry the wife." Don't sit around. God's plan is unfolding right now.
To be continued...
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Comments (3)
thanks for that post...very encouraging especially as a college student who is tired of school and just wants to get on with her life.Thanks
Posted by alexi | March 31, 2008 8:32 PM
Recently I read a book about Amy Carmichael and it told of when cholera was sweeping through the village where she did her mission work so she went out alone to help the people. She had to carry this pail of medicines, rags, bottles, and other supplies that was really heavy so she asked the local church leader to help, but he responded that he preferred to carry his Bible. He also commented to her that he preferred prayer meetings to sanitary work.
You're probably as angry as I am about reading that, but I found that after reading it I needed to face up to how often I do the same thing (although less obvious), if not to people, but to God, when asked to glorify and please Him in some way that humbles me and does not at all please me (or doesn't appear spiritual).
This quote by George Matheson, I believe, perfectly captures what makes mundane, "normal" activities that God Wills for us to do into holy, spiritual, activities that glorify Him:
"Thou wouldst not have me accept Thy will because I must, but because I may. Thou wouldst have me take it, not with resignation, but with joy; not with the absence of a murmur, but with a song of praise."
While I was looking through the book to confirm the details of the story about Amy Carmichael (I have probably 40 post-its as bookmarks so it can take a little while to find something I've tabbed) I came across this passage regarding Amy and those she worked with in the mission learning the lesson of glorifying and serving God with mundane, "unspiritual" work:
"'The women ... were learning that if the Lord of Glory took a towel and knelt on the floor to wash the dusty feet of His disciples (the job of the lowest slave in an Eastern household), then no work, even the relentless and often messy routine of caring for squalling babies, is demeaning. To offer it up to the Lord of Glory transforms it into a holy task. 'Could it be right,' Amy had asked, 'to turn from so much that might be of profit and become just nursemaids?' The answer was yes. It is not the business of the servant to decide which work is great, which is small, which important or unimportant -- he is not greater than his master.
'If by doing some work which the undiscerning consider 'not spiritual work' I can best help others, and I inwardly rebel, thinking it is the spiritual for which I crave, when in truth it is the interesting and exciting, then I know nothing of Calvary Love.'"
Thanks for encouraging my generation, especially, to do God's Will, whatever it is He asks of us.
God bless!
Posted by Nicole T. | March 31, 2008 11:30 PM
I came across the following quotes in a collection of sermons by Hudson Taylor. They were really helpful to me with regards to challenging and inspiring me to honor God with my work, and to live for Him in every area of my life, here and now:
"Let us not despise a little circle of usefulness. A little circle of usefulness is not to be despised. A light that doesn't shine beautifully around the family table at home -- a light that isn't worth having in the home or the college -- isn't fit to take a long way off to do a great service somewhere else. Let us just go with this message to shine for Jesus, and to live and work for Him wherever He sends us."
"... the question of fruit-bearing depends, not upon what we are, not where we are. ... God puts every man in the very best place for himself and for the world at the time. Young people whose hearts are stirred about missionary work are apt to say: "Well, you know, I am surrounded by very unfavorable circumstances -- surrounded by such a set of college companions; or at home the influences are against me. If I could only go to India or China, I could shine for Jesus." Why, dear friends, a candle that won't shine in one room is very unlikely to shine in another. If you don't shine at home -- if your father and mother, your sister and brother, if the very cat and dog in your house are not the better and happier for your being a Christian, it is a question whether you really are one. It isn't our surroundings and circumstances that are the all-important things: but how far we are linked -- how close is the union between our souls and God. What do we know about Him: What is He to us? This is the all important question."
Posted by Nicole T. | April 2, 2008 2:09 AM