“Settle down and build
houses. Plant gardens and eat what you grow in them. Get married and have children, then help your
sons find wives and help your daughters find husbands, so they can have
children as well. I want your numbers to grow, not to get smaller.”
Jeremiah 29:5 is God speaking to His people who are in bondage in Babylon. They are waiting for God to deliver them, after all that is what the prophets were saying, but God sends a word through Jeremiah which is very different! At a glance, this is not encouraging. To have time to build, marry, have
grandchildren, that seems like the bondage will never end! Before you get discouraged, let me tell you
what the message I got in the midst of my ‘bondage’.
NEXT STEPS
Freedom. It’s something everyone wants, but many don’t know how to manage it. Recently I was in the midst of a temporary assignment that I was locked into for a set time. Longing for freedom kept me anxious, but also ready to be done with it all! After awhile of waking and thinking about my freedom, it dawned on me… “you are wasting this time.” See at first, I didn’t quite understand how I was wasting time because I was doing all and more in compliance with my assignment. But the question was “What are you going to
do with your newfound freedom when this is done?”
I took that thought and while I was yet in the midst of my current assignment, I began to dream! I started thinking
about my next steps and the things God laid on my heart to do in my life. As a result, I got insight, direction, I got tangible
details that I began to get really excited about! Now my time in ‘bondage’ was no longer being used to complain to myself
and feel frustrated… all of my time was purposeful. Not only was I handling my current assignment, I was preparing for the next! See the issue is not getting out of whatever state you are
in, the issue is taking advantage of being settled in something that you really
want to end and using that time to plan for
the next steps. When working in prison ministry, I was told often by inmates "We learn to Do the time, don't let the time do you!" Sometimes God wants us to 'Be still and Know" and some assignments have us in neutral, so we need to take our foot off the gas, and use that time wisely.
NEWFOUND FREEDOM
It doesn't seem like it, but freedom can be overrated.
The bible tells us "not to use our liberty as an occasion to stumble”. 1 Cor 8:10 Simply said, if we are not careful, we can
find ourselves in a bit of trouble and a poor example to those who are watching us.
I
knew a family years ago who had a teenage daughter that was wanting so badly to
be able to fit in with her peers. Problem was that the church her family
attended was for real Pentecostal. They
wore no makeup, no pants, no jewelry and no smiles. She would try to use Vaseline on her lips as
lip gloss or since she was Caucasian, she could hit her face to look like
blush. But nothing worked, she felt she was in bondage. She went through middle school, high school
and when she finally got to the ripe old age of 18, she was OUT OF THERE! But instead of planning for her “freedom” she
just went WILD! Her make up was
clownish, she had 3-4 different colors on her eye lids, liner around her lips
with color and gloss and her hair was stiff from trying to make creative hair
dos. Her freedom as a young Christian became a new kind of
bondage, because she didn’t plan what her freedom could look like, she
literally went wild. She married young, married bad, and began living a roller coaster of drama and bad decisions- all as a Christian.
That is what happens to many on occasion- after graduation leaving for college, summer vacation, a bad relationship ends, an empty
nest. We must learn to use our difficult time to
plan for the better day, to hear from God about what is next.
TIME TO PLAN!
If you are in the midst of a change in life, take time to pray,
seek counsel, search and research creative ideas and things you can implement when
you are free to do your own thing. Build,
Connect, Plan, Save, Sow, be Fruitful and Grow! Don’t
let freedom be the only thing you pursue, and don’t let newfound freedom become a time
of stripping away good boundaries, because some of the disciplines you learned in bondage are not all bad- we just have to learn how to gather the good, and discard the bad. Sometimes the situation you are in is a safety net for your planning stages. It is time to think.
As for me, I am excited about this
next chapter. I am still talking to
God, getting insight from others and writing down plans and ideas. I am lining things up, because I want my NEWFOUND FREEDOM to be great!
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