Debt Free: God's Promise, Our Duty & Your FreedomНамуна

“I never wake up in the morning and wonder why I am here. I wake up and wonder why I am not making here better.” ― Jeffrey Fry

Jeremiah 29 contains a powerful lesson in presence. Most of the chapter contains a letter, penned by the prophet Jeremiah, sent to the exiled Israelites living in Babylon. You might think a letter like this, sent by a powerful representative of God to the frustrated and stuck people would be a call to arms. To stand up, gather their ranks, and fight their way back to the Promised Land.

But this letter says the opposite.

Rather than calling God’s people to leave, He calls them to stay because “if [the land they are in] prospers, [they] too will prosper” (v.7). 

This verse can be a hard pill to swallow, especially when you feel as if your debt has you stuck in a job you can’t stand or in a situation with no way out. I know this feeling, which is why this verse felt so convicting the first time God brought it to my attention.

I didn’t want to stay where I was at. I was doing everything in my power to get out of there, including aggressively paying down my debt. But then God brought this idea to mind.

What if the negative thing (my debt or Israel’s exile) was the means by which God used to bring me to exactly where He wanted me anyways?

I am not saying that God wants to keep you in a limiting place forever. Or that you should just settle in and accept your fate. Instead, I am saying that, Biblically, the best way to get there (the debt-free, purpose-filled, prosperous life you were meant to live) is to make the most of here. 

Here is where you are and here is where God wants you to start.