Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.
Adam R. Holes wrote today's reading, and he titled it Agents of Shalom. In 2015, local ministries in Colorado Springs, Colorado teamed up to serve the city, and Cuz I Love You was born. Each fall, in an event called CityServe, the group sends believers out to serve the community. Several years ago, my children and I were assigned to a downtown elementary school during CityServe. We cleaned, we pulled weeds, and we worked on an art project, placing colored plastic tape through a chain link fence in a way that approximated mountains.
Simple, but surprisingly beautiful. Whenever I drive past the school, our humble art project reminds me of Jeremiah 29. There, God instructed his people to settle down and to serve the city they were in. He commanded this even though they were in exile and didn't want to be there. The prophet said, 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. The word peace here is the Hebrew word shalom, and it encompasses the idea of the wholeness and flourishing that only God's goodness and redemption can bring. Amazingly, God invites each of us to be his agents of shalom, right where we are.
We're invited to create beauty and practice redemption in simple, concrete ways in the spaces he's placed us. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 29, verses 1 through 7. This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jehoiachin and the Queen Mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem. He entrusted the letter to Elasa, son of Shaphan, and to Gemariah, son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah, king of Judah, sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon.
It said, This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 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. Would you spend some time in prayer with me? Dear Heavenly Father, help us to be agents of your shalom in the places you've planted us, even when we feel like an outsider. Guide us to create beauty, practice redemption, and seek the peace and prosperity of our communities, trusting that as we serve others for your sake, we too will flourish under your care. We love you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks so much for listening today. I'm Stephen Tabor, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.
Whisper: medium.en / 2024-11-22 20:15:37 / 2024-11-22 20:17:24 / 2