Seek Robertson County’s Welfare
Jeremiah 29:4–5, 7 (NAS): 4 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, 5 ‘Build houses and live in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce. 7 ‘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.’
As a Christian, my main citizenship is a heavenly one; therefore, I am a visitor and guest of Robertson County, TN. My exile is terrible in that I am not in heaven with the Lord because He has sent me away to be on a mission for Him. He has given me an allotted time to accomplish my mission before I must return to Him and report about it.
We are reminded by Jeremiah that no matter where God’s people live, they are called to pray for that place and to seek good for its welfare. For the visitor and guest of the area, it is okay to build houses and create gardens to sustain a decent life, but this welfare is not about prosperity. If building prosperity is a means of reaching the heavenly goal, then we will be held accountable for the means of our ends. Just a few reminders concerning this passage:
(1) Good goals are not great goals. We may accomplish a lot of good and be nice to people, but if they know nothing of our King when we leave then we have failed. Many of us will have different means to accomplish the same goal, but the means must not become the goal. There is a great goal for you, and one way to find it is to answer the following question: What matters in a 1,000 years from today?
(2) This is not our home. We live in exile today because we are not in heaven. We will return one day but the Lord has sent us into exile to accomplish His purposes and He will hold us accountable for that one day. John Piper stated, “We will do our city most good by calling as many of its citizens as we can to be citizens of ‘the Jerusalem above’ (Galatians 4:26).”
(3) Seek our city’s welfare. Will your city miss you when you are gone? Would they notice if you left? If you did not answer “yes” then you are doing something wrong. Doing good (as to open up opportunities to accomplish your mission of making His name great) is not afforded you because you woke up today. You have to be a catalyst of good and sometimes it’s warrior. Let us not hope that we have made a difference, let us know that we have made a difference. Let us do that by making it hard to go to hell from Robertson County.
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david evans is the Senior Pastor for Springfield Baptist church. Feel free to contact David by visiting the church’s website: www.Springfield-Baptist.com. In the meantime, for Great Commission ideas check out other ideas in other blogs found on this site. Thank you for visiting!