Bloom where you're planted

I was listening to a very good message by Nicky Gumbel, when an unexpected and unwanted lie slid into my mind. God must love Nicky Gumbel more than me. Look what he’s achieved. Great big, well-known church in London and Alpha, such a fruitful worldwide ministry. He must be one of God’s favourites. What have I done? I don’t even know anyone famous and successful.

Before I tumbled down this slippery slope any further, I put the mental brakes on and called my treacherous mind back to the truth. I am unique – fearfully and wonderfully made. I’m the apple of my Father’s eye. I am who God wants me to be. I look the way God wants me to look and as Nicky Gumbel said in his message ‘I have been planted where God wants me to bloom.’ 

He was speaking about this in the context of the Israelites who had been exiled to Babylon. They were hoping the exile would soon be over and they could go back to how life used to be – back in Israel. Does this all sound every familiar in the context of the pandemic? 

God however spoke to them in Jeremiah 29 and told them to put down roots, build a life, pray for the city or place they had been sent to and then God said: For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. Jeremiah 29: 11 – 13 

God has great plans and purposes for us in these days. We are where he wants us to be. We can bloom and be fruitful right where we are. We don’t need things to go back to how they used to be. We don’t need to be rich and famous or even prominent to achieve what God has called us to be and do. We need to be faithful. 

One of my main focuses in life has been to raise our family and now they are grown up and there are grandchildren galore, there is much to pray for. There are 21 people in our own, immediate family! That takes some praying for. I may not have any daily responsibility for them. They may be scattered around the world but they are certainly not out of sight or out of mind. They are settled in my heart. I am praying not just for their salvation but they will, every one, be passionate about their relationship with God. I want to raise a generation of giant slayers. That’s where I have been called to bloom. 

God hasn’t called any of us to twiddle our spiritual thumbs and hope the pandemic will be over soon. He has called us to be a Godly influence where we are. Nicky Gumbel tells the story of the supermarket check out lady who sat at her till, got to know the names of her customers, listen to their stories and tell them she’d pray for them. When she died, the church was packed with these same customers coming to pay their respects for this lady, who had had such an impact on their lives - sitting at her till. 

We most certainly don’t need to be prominent to be significant. Our prayers, our conversations with family and friends can have the most enormous ripple effects. If we don’t make Jesus a topic of conversation with the people we know, who else is going to? When in trouble, people like someone who they think has a hotline to God to pray and advise them but helping them form their own relationship with God is so important. God has called us to bloom where he has planted us. It may not look very exciting, it may not be very prominent but it is significant if we make the most of our Godly relationship to pray and bring God’s presence into our circle of influence.

God's ways are perfect

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.  ¹¹ 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. ¹² Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. ¹³ You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  ¹⁴I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.” Jeremiah 29: 10 – 14

We are all very familiar with verse 11 of this famous passage from Jeremiah but let’s take a look at the verse that precedes it. Jeremiah had sent a letter to the exiles in Babylon from Jerusalem where he was still living with those who had not been taken into exile. He gives them the devastating news that they are going to be in Babylon for 70 years. They had hoped they would return very soon and now for most of them, they knew they would never see Jerusalem again.

This is why verse 11 is so important both to the Jewish people then and to us because even in the midst of great disappointments when all our hopes and plans have evaporated God still has plans to prosper us and give us a hope and a future. God assured the Jews that he would bring them back from exile but many would know it would be their children and not them who would return.

They were in an unenviable position as they had no choice but to stay in Babylon – they could not go back to Jerusalem. God told them through Jeremiah’s letter to settle down, build houses and build a new life for themselves. They could choose though how they lived in Babylon; bitter and disappointed or believing that God did indeed have good plans for them.

Sometimes when things do not work out the way we had hoped especially in churches, the temptation is to get up and leave. Sometimes this is the right thing to do but often it is not. Leaving a church is never easy and should not be done lightly. We leave because God says it is time to move on not because someone has hurt and disappointed us. God brought his people back to Jerusalem in his timing and God will move us when it is right for us.

I have learned so much through the difficult and disappointing church moments even though I have not enjoyed them. Underlying the difficulties and disappointments is the thread that God has good plans for my life and I can trust him. So whatever the situation we are facing, wait for God and look to him for guidance, affirmation and approval. He will not let us down and his timing really is perfect.