Babylon.

What is your favorite Bible verse? I have had mine memorized for years and I’m sure it’s the same as at least 25% of you. It’s Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declared the Lord. “Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I know, beautiful right? Inspiring. It gives me chills every time I read it or speak it. What peace I get when I hear that I won’t be harmed. That I have a future. That I will be given hope and prosperity. But this morning, in my book that I am reading by Shannon Bream called “The Love Stories of the Bible Speak”, she revealed the verses before it to explain the context of this verse. I had never done that! Have you done that with yours? If you haven’t, you should! Now that I have, it has created a deeper, more powerful meaning than I had understood before!

Starting with verse 5: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce…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…When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place.” And then of course my favorite verse- “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” BOOM! What began as a cute little passage from the Bible that I kept in my back pocket to sound spiritual at all times, became a deep understanding that although this message declares hope, it does not promise immediate deliverance. Actually, the opposite. 70 YEARS?! What?!

I don’t know where you live but I currently live in California and my husband and I have always had an agreement that once he retires from work, we will be HAPPILY moving out of this state. And year by year it’s getting harder and harder to stay. The politicians and “woke” media has turned this state into the Babylon that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego endured. I have many friends that have up and moved out of California without hesitation. Losing money, great jobs, closeness to family, the church they loved, friends and communities. It breaks my heart to watch the state that I grew up in, the state I used to love being a part of, become so dramatic and satanic, that all the good people are leaving to places where they can live freely. The FREE life that our founding father’s fought and died to establish! The FREE life that Jesus died on the cross for! The FREE life that God created us to have and have abundantly!

I have now come to an understanding that I am currently in Babylon myself. But the reassurance I now have during this period in time that I wait to leave this place, is that God is with us, even in Babylon. As Shannon Bream says,” He can use us here to bring Grace to the world around us. He can change the hearts of pagan kings. He can walk with us into the furnace. He can and DOES bless us with a community of believers. And one day He will take us home to our Heavenly Promised Land.”

Years ago, when my husband bought our first house and decided to uproot me from San Diego to our little country town an hour away, I was furious! It took me years to become open to where we live now. I felt exiled. I had lost my community and had to start over. Today, I am SO GLAD I did! God blessed me with a new community! A community of like minded individuals who build each other up and encourage each other to live by God’s principles. My book quotes, “ This is one of the special blessings of friendship: It can create a place for our faith to flourish even when the outside world is against us. Godly friends remind us who we are- and WHOSE we are- even when the world tempts us to forget.”

So while I live here in exile, and God works on Babylon, I will cling to my community that God planted in my life. I will bring Grace to those around me. I will walk into the furnace with them and God by my side and I will use my voice to bring truth to light.

The REAL me, Audra