But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
– Jeremiah 29:7
What a command from God to his people as they were going into exile. Babylonian exile. God says, “Seek the welfare of the city in Babylon where you’re living. Pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you’ll find your welfare. This will be good for others in that city, and this will be good for you”.
Jeremiah 29:7 teaches us to seek the good of the places we temporarily call home.
Now, that was a specific command to God’s people in the Old Testament. But surely it applies. I mean, we see so many parallels to this in the New Testament when it comes to, well, the reality that we are all exiles. We’re all living in a nation right now that’s not our heavenly home.
So, in whatever city, nation we’re living in, let’s seek the welfare of the place where we’re in exile right now. Let’s pray to the Lord on its behalf. Let’s intercede for the places where we live, the countries where we live, the cities where we live. For the people in these places, knowing that in their welfare we’ll find our welfare.
This will be good for us in this world and good for them. We are called to be intercessors for the people around us, for the cities around us, for the nations around us, and to do good for the people and cities, and nations around us, knowing we ultimately belong to another nation. So, not forgetting that we’re exiles here, not thinking that is our homeland, it’s not, but seeing our homeland in the future and living wherever we are now in light of that reality.
Jeremiah 29:7 invites us to pray for justice, mercy, and local gospel impact.
So God, we pray that in each of the places where we live, you would help us in a Matthew 5:16 kind of way to be salt and light in our cities, in our countries, in such a way that people see our lives, our good works, our working for the welfare of others, doing good works that lead people to glorify your name. God, we pray for that right now. Just think about the cities where we live as we’re praying.
God, I pray for my city. We pray for each of the cities where we live, for your grace, for your mercy, for justice, for good… In the cities where we live. We pray for the leaders of these cities, states, provinces, wherever it might be in different parts of the world. We pray for our countries. God, we pray for the welfare of our countries. We pray for justice and mercy, and for good to reign more and more and more in our countries.
We pray for that over the leaders of our countries. God, help us to be faithful intercessors in this world as exiles. We pray for the spread of the gospel in our cities. We pray for the spread of the gospel in our countries.
Prayer for the Lodha Jariya People
Lord, we pray for the spread of the gospel among all the countries, among all the nations. We pray for the Lodha Jariya people of India, for 1.7 million men, women, and children, no known followers of Jesus among them. God, please cause the Lodha Jariya, we’re interceding for them right now. Please cause good to spread to them, ultimately, in the gospel. We pray for churches to be planted among the Lodha Jariyapeople that they might be reached with the good news of your love.
We pray for salt and light, followers of yours, children of yours, to take the gospel to them. And we pray that for all the peoples of the world, all the nations of the world, all the cities of the world. God to help us to do Matthew 5:16, to do Matthew 28:19, as you’ve commanded us to do in a way that leads to the good of people around us and places where we live, ultimately to the glory of your name.
As we look forward to the day when we’re finally home and everything is perfectly good. Come, Lord Jesus, just come quickly, we pray, and help us to faithfully live here with our eyes fixed on our heavenly country to come. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
