The Middle

Jeremiah 29:4-7

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all of the exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem into Babylon. Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage; that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile and pray to the Lord on it’s behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.

Jeremiah 29:10-11

For thus says the LORD: when seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will visit you and I will fulfill to you my promise.
For I know the plans I have for you declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11. It’s one of those verses typically quoted when we are feeling less then hopeful. It’s the promise that can easily detour from our brain to our lips without traveling though our heart, which is the desirable destination for every promise of God.

But what do we do in the mean time when the promise has yet to manifest? When hope and future have yet to materialize? What is God’s desire, in the “middle”?

Scripture is saturated with God’s love for us. We must know His heart to feel the weight of His affection with each turn of the opaque page. The verses preceding Jeremiah 29:11, reveal His expectations in our middle experiences. Read it closely because our middle moments are monumental to our destination.

Build houses. Plant gardens. Take wives. Bear children. Multiply. In it’s welfare, you will find welfare. Did you catch that? In it’s welfare, you will find welfare. The Hebrew word for welfare is shalown, pronounced shalom. Yep, the same word as PEACE. The broader meaning is completeness, soundness, safety, and contentment. CSB reads, Pursue the well being of the city in which I have deported you to. Pray to the Lord on its behalf for when it thrives, you will thrive. v. 7

What is the key to thriving? It’s hitting our knees on the middle ground. Praying for those He has placed in our middle. Rather then choosing the short sided selfish view of rushing THROUGH the middle to reach our hope and future land, God sees the middle as essential to our fulfillment IN our hope and future land.

Leviticus 26:9 states, I will be leaning toward you with favor and regard for you rendering you fruitful and multiplying you. There it is again….Multiply. Obedience equals Gods favor which equals multiplication.

Multiplication means, hook up the U-Haul ya’ll! We’re going to be bringing abundance with us into our hope and future land!

God sent them into exile. Sent them. He even referred to them as “exiles”. A good God sending exiles into exile? Seperating them from all that is comfortable and label worthy? What gives?

Exile-prolonged separation from ones country or home as by force or circumstances. A place no one would prefer to be, yet a place of necessity. A place that reveals what is hidden within us. Our middle can have the semblance of exile, separating us from what is familiar. But, as familiarity fades, heart issues emerge.

Exile is uncomfortable. Exile is exposing. Exile is desolate.

Desolate places water dormant spaces. Exile doesn’t create the sin-filled places within our hearts, it simply grows roots from the seeds that have lain undisturbed. Seeds of distrusting God. Seeds of selfishness. Seeds of bitterness. Seeds of pride. Seeds of entitlement. These must be unearthed. Why? If our roots extend from those seeds, we will never multiply in righteousness and peace. We cannot experience the abundant life promised by our freedom giving Father when rooted to seeds of sin. He is a good Father whose heart is ALWAYS for our freedom. He even provides the trowel to do the digging.

But if we freely admit and confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9.

Admit.

Confess.

He hands us the spade, but humility governs the grasp. As we do our part in the middle, He multiplies. Multiplies our peace. Multiplies our fruitfulness. Multiplies our influence for the Kingdom. His face shines upon us in the middle. The Light needed to produce a harvest of righteousness and peace. As we chose to make the most of our middle, He is made more in us. Our decrease and His increase has a multiplication effect in our lives. His middle plan precedes our Promised Land.