Promote Peace Where You Are | Advent Devotional Day 8

December 7th, 2025
by Sarah Hines

Advent 2025 DevotionalCore | Peace
December 7, 2025
Written by Emily Arth

Title: Promote Peace Where You Are

Scripture:

Jeremiah 29:4 The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims to all the exiles I have carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 Build houses and settle down; cultivate gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Get married and have children; then help your sons find wives and your daughters find husbands in order that they too may have children. Increase in number there so that you don’t dwindle away. 7 Promote the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because your future depends on its welfare.

10 The Lord proclaims: When Babylon’s seventy years are up, I will come and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. 11 I know the plans I have in mind for you, declares the Lord; they are plans for peace, not disaster, to give you a future filled with hope. 12 When you call me and come and pray to me, I will listen to you. 13 When you search for me, yes, search for me with all your heart, you will find me. 14 I will be present for you, declares the Lord, and I will end your captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have scattered you, and I will bring you home after your long exile,[a] declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 29:4-7, 10-14)

My Reflection

It’s easy to believe peace will come later…after the move, after the breakthrough, after the relationship is restored, after the season shifts. We tell ourselves, “I’ll feel settled once I’m somewhere else.” But in Jeremiah 29, God speaks to people who feel misplaced, displaced, and deeply disappointed and He does not tell them to wait for peace. He tells them to create it.

Israel wanted to escape. God offered instruction. His command is to go and build houses, plant gardens, raise families, and work for the good of the city where you are exiled. Pray for the city too, because if it prospers, you will also prosper. His proclamation was, “Stop waiting for circumstances to change before you choose peace. Cultivate peace in the very place you wish you could leave.”

Sometimes peace isn’t delivered to us; sometimes it must be planted. Peace becomes real when we stop resisting where we are and start partnering with God in the midst of challenge.
Maybe you’re not where you hoped to be. Maybe life looks nothing like the plans you once cherished. Perhaps you feel like you’re in your own version of Babylon surrounded by people who don’t understand you, a job that drains you, or a season you never chose. Yet God’s invitation remains. Cultivate peace right now.

Your peace is not held hostage by location, season, or circumstance. Peace begins the moment you decide: “God is here too—and because He is here, good can still grow.” Peace is not passive. Peace is planted, and wherever it is planted, it multiplies.
What garden can I plant in this place?

How can I be a peacemaker where I’d rather be a complainer?
What would it look like to bless this season instead of fighting it?

My Prayer:

Heavenly Father, amidst my suffering and complaining, interrupt me with your reminder of Jehovah Jireh…God provides. Help me to remember how to embody your love and to channel your peace in all circumstances. Remind me of the things I can do in this present moment to plant seeds of peace and to nurture them with the love you so generously provide. Amen.

Posted in Advent Devotional