EXILE CAN BE AN UNCOMFORTABLE EXPERIENCE. The fact that we are strangers in this world can lead us to feel like we’re fish out of water. If we’re not careful, those feelings can lead us to seek respite by continually changing our location, profession, relationships, or the color of paint on our walls. Yet, no change in this world will leave us with any lasting satisfaction because we long for something that is otherworldly. In most cases what we need to do is be faithful to our gospel responsibilities right where God has placed us. We ought to “grow where we’ve been planted” and to “put down roots” even when the soil is a little harsh.
In Acts 17, we find the Apostle Paul in the Areopagus of Athens speaking to some of the leading thinkers of Greece about the “unknown God” to whom they had built an altar. The summary of Paul’s speech to these pagan philosophers bares significant truth regarding God’s sovereignty and his care for his creatures. Paul’s words, which Luke has recorded, encourage us who sometimes find life in this exile to be difficult and undesirable. Let’s consider three declarations of God’s providence that speak to his care for us and our calling to missional purposes.
God Has Given Everything You Need
“He himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). For those of us who are Christians, we have been given even more (Philippians 4:19). Think about all the Lord has provided you. Start with the most basic of things – a mind to think, a heart to feel, a body to move, air to breathe, water to drink, food to eat. Then consider how he has blessed you beyond that – family, friends, home, job, health. Now think on those things that are ultimate – salvation, the Holy Spirit, peace, joy, love, faith. He has supplied all our needs as an intentional, devoted Father (Matthew 7:7-11). If there are things you lack (finances, friendship, faith), ask him for them. He cares for you.
God Has Uniquely Placed You In The World
“And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place” (Acts 17:26). When and where you were born was no accident. God appointed the exact day and location you would come into the world. He also chose the particular people group you would be born into. He purposed that you would speak a specific language and have a certain culture. He chose all this because you are counted among a “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” that worship Jesus (Revelation 7:9). Even today, the Lord is lovingly determining the “boundaries of your dwelling place” for the sake of his mission to the nations.
God Wants The People Around You To Know Him
“that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:27). Jesus not only saved you as a worshipper from your people group, but he desires to send you back to your people as an ambassador of the gospel. Just like the woman at the well who went back to her fellow villagers to share the Good News of Christ with them (John 4), God desires that you would speak of him to your neighbors. This is not to say that God will never call you to serve cross-culturally in some way. In fact, today our communities are filled with a great number of diverse people groups. In 2021 (the year in which this book was written), there happen to be 521 people groups living in the United States, with 97 of them being unreached (less than 2% Christian)!! What an amazing opportunity we have right where God has placed us to be witnesses of the grace and love available in Christ.
I love Henry Blackaby’s quote from Experiencing God, “Right now, God is working all around you.” Do you believe it? We need to be reminded of this often. Don’t grow weary or become discouraged. Set your heart on how to join the Lord in the work he is accomplishing right where you are.
PRAYER
Father, help me to be content with where I am today – whether that be where I live or where I work or among the group of people I call friends. Lift up my eyes to see how you are working in these places and among these people, that I my join your Spirit in the work of reconciling the world to you in Christ. Help me to find my satisfaction in you, for you supply my every need. Amen.
PONDER
- What do you find most amazing about God’s sovereignty as described in Acts 17:24-27?
- As you look back at your life, how have you seen God’s hand in leading you to live in certain places and times for his glory?
- What do you find most difficult about where you find yourself today? How might the Lord give you perseverance through this challenge?