Don’t be a Dirty Puddle

If you don’t remember anything else about today, please remember this:

Don’t be a dirty puddle.

How many times in your life have you ever felt stuck? Like you just weren’t going anywhere?

We have. Recently, we have spoken to so many people that have opened up about feeling stuck, having no motivation, and feeling frustrated, angry, and depressed.

There are so many people that can quote the popular scripture Jeremiah 29:11.

“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.”

Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jer.29.11.NIV

BUT how many of those same people can tell you why God might have said those words? What came before this scripture? Can you quote those words?

It’s a popular scripture because it’s used so often when people feel stuck, and it matters. It brings hope. It reminds you that there is a future that God has already set in motion for you.

But here’s the catch. Before God spoke those words, He gave instructions.

Jeremiah 29:5-7 NIV: “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, 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.”

This part of chapter 29 was part of a letter from the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah who were carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. BUT God spoke to them during this time of exile and said, “Hey, you’re stuck, but ya gotta keep moving. Ya keep growing, because there will come a day when you are no longer in exile, but you won’t get there if you don’t live like you were meant to. You won’t have My promise until you prosper in the land I have sent you to first.”

The reason why your promise of Jeremiah 29:11 will come into existence is because you will keep moving.

I felt God speak these words once when I felt stuck: “If you don’t keep moving, you will never see My promises. You will stay stuck. You will die stuck.”

If the people of God had stopped, if they didn’t build, grow, marry, and have children, their lineage would have ended. They wouldn’t have made it through those 70 years. No one would’ve been there to say, “This is what God promised us.”

If they had just sat in their pain and pity, everything would have stalled, and they would’ve grown stale in God’s plan.

Jesus once told a lame man, “Do you want to get well?” … “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!” (John 5:6-8 NIV)

Some of us need to do the same!

Now, where does the dirty puddle fit in? Think about a river flowing, full of winding turns and bumpy streams, sometimes steady and slow, sometimes raging fast. It stays the course and eventually makes its way to the ocean. So many scriptures reference flowing waters.

Continuously flowing water is LIVING water; it’s ALIVE, it’s MOVING.

Ok… back to the puddle…. A puddle is water that sits. It festers, dirt lingers, bugs lay their eggs in it, bacteria grows in it, it can harm anything that comes across it to take a drink. Then eventually it shrivels up and dries to nothing, not even leaving a trace of its existence, only a dry and empty piece of land.

We were not called to sit still.

We cannot stay stuck for our own well-being and the well-being of others. If the people in exile wallowed and refused to keep moving, the land of Babylon might not have prospered.

Think about the flowing waters again. Flowing rivers can, over time, shape the land in ways that still-standing water cannot.

Staying “stuck” not only hinders you but those around you.

So keep moving!

Now there is time for when we are meant to rest (another story, another time) but we must continuously keep moving and growing in our daily lives so that we can get to our destination, our promise from God.

No matter if we feel stuck, keep moving…. stop sitting… and don’t be a dirty puddle.