July 21, 2025

BUILD, PLANT, LIVE

Jeremiah 29:5-7 (36:5-7)

Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands; and be multiplied and not diminished. Seek the peace of the land into which I carried you captive. Pray to the Lord for them, for in its peace you shall have peace.

Encouraging Words

As followers of Christ, we live our lives as if we are ambassadors for God here in this temporal world. Our true residency is in God’s kingdom. This, by the way, makes it easier to go through the chaos in the world without getting upset about it. In this passage, Jeremiah was encouraging his fellow Israelites, who were captives in a foreign land, and therefore ambassadors themselves, how to live. They were to live fully by building houses, planting gardens, marrying, and having families. They were to live as much for their God as they could so that they could create a place of peace in their temporary home. What a wonderful encouragement. Thanks be to God!