Devotion: For the City

⁷ 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

In the men’s morning breakfast today, we were discussing the mission of Jesus and how He has set each one of us into our communities for a purpose.  We have been placed into these “spheres of influence” in order that we may serve them.

For Jeremiah’s audience that would be a strange statement because they were sent into “exile.”  Exile means that were sent out of their comfort zone, their hometown, and into unfamiliar territory.  From the surface it would seem like punishment to be sent into exile; to be separated from the people you love, from the comforts of home, from the familiar.  What Jeremiah is saying is that God has carried us into this places of discomfort, unfamiliarity, uncertainty for His very purpose.  That we would work for the peace and prosperity of that city.  Notice that it is not for ourselves, but for the city. 

Where do you feel out of place?  Where has God set you into a sphere of influence?  How might you lead your family, your children, your coworkers, your neighbors and bring them peace and prosperity?  Are you praying for them?