In the Waiting

“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 29:5-7

Grow where you’re planted, even in the times in between.

We are all waiting on something. Waiting for the perfect job, waiting for our dreams to be fulfilled, waiting on the right person, waiting on the cure, waiting for things to be made right, waiting for our children to be out of diapers, waiting for our children to return to the Lord, waiting for the call from God, waiting to be called home, waiting for Jesus to return. No matter what it is that you are waiting on, the hardest part in the wait is the time in between.

All of Israel has been overtaken at this point in Jeremiah and had been exiled to Babylon. They were fully aware of the promises of God and knew he’d bring them back to their homes but they didn’t know when. The people were searching for signs, anxious for answers, but through the prophet Jeremiah, God said to wait.

God told Jeremiah to encourage the people with these words, “I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11. He had confirmed that he had plans to return them to their land and homes, but until that time came they were to settle into where he had brought them. The people of Israel were to plant their roots in Babylon, grow their crops and their families there, stop anxiously awaiting the future and start living fully in the present.

God has plans for you, but part of His plans are to grow you in the waiting.

God desires for us to live fully in the place He’s planted us. He will move us when we need to move, he will fulfill the plans he has for us when the time is right, but until that time comes we are to wait well right where we are.

Don’t worry about the timing. Don’t hold off plans to buy that house or take that job or go on that date or have a baby or make a friend or plant a garden. God doesn’t want you to stop living as you wait on him, he wants you to flourish where you are so that you can reflect him in that place.

In the waiting, live; in the waiting, love; in the waiting, grow where he’s planted you!