Religion Seeks Quick Changes, but True Faith Values the Slow Formation

Jeremiah 29:11 is often quoted as a beautiful promise of hope and blessing. Yet it was first spoken to people who were hurting, displaced, and discouraged. The exiles in Babylon longed for immediate relief. Their situation felt unbearable, so they prayed for God to change their location, restore their honor, and undo their grief. We know this feeling. When life is overwhelming, we want God to act quickly. However, Scripture shows that genuine faith is formed slowly, through patience and continued trust. God is concerned not only with the circumstances surrounding us, but with the person we are becoming through them. Faith grows through endurance, reflection, and persistent prayer. Religion seeks quick change in circumstances, but true faith values the slow formation of the soul.

Jeremiah wrote this message to those already taken into exile. Jerusalem had fallen. The temple was destroyed. The symbols of covenant identity had been stripped away. The people traveled around 700 miles, many in chains and under harsh conditions. Those who survived the journey entered a land filled with foreign gods, foreign language, foreign customs, and foreign authority.

The exiles could build houses, plant crops, and establish families, yet their hearts were restless. Their songs became laments. Psalm 137 describes them sitting by the rivers of Babylon, unable to sing the songs of Zion. Their loss was spiritual, cultural, emotional, and personal.

Their deepest desire was to return home. They believed that if their location changed, restoration would follow. They believed healing depended on environment. At that moment, a prophet named Hananiah declared a message that seemed comforting. He promised that within two years the exiles would return and the temple vessels would be restored (Jer. 28:3–4). The people welcomed his message because it spoke to their immediate desire. However, it was a message without repentance, without reflection, and without transformation. It offered the result without the journey. It promised outcome without obedience.

Then Jeremiah delivered the true word of the Lord. The exile would last seventy years (Jer. 29:10). This meant that an entire generation would live and die in Babylon. Children would be born there. New families would form there. Faith would need to be practiced there, away from the familiar places of worship and memory.

God then gave an instruction that seemed hard to accept: “Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you. Pray to the Lord for it” (Jer. 29:5–7).

This was more than a command to survive. It was a call to live with intention, dignity, and openness in a place they did not choose. It was an invitation to spiritual maturity. God was forming them. He was reshaping their identity. Babylon was not only a place of exile. It was a place for re-rooting.

The exiles had been attached to the temple as a guarantee of safety. They believed that as long as they performed the right worship rituals, God was bound to secure their blessing. Their faith had turned into ceremony without love. In exile, they no longer had the temple. They no longer had the visible sign of God’s nearness. They had only the Word and the promise. They had only trust. The exile became the place where the covenant relationship was purified. It was where trust was separated from convenience. It was where faith grew into something deep and stable.

 This is how God works with individuals as well. David was anointed as a shepherd boy, but years of hardship followed. He lived under threat, misunderstanding, and loneliness. During those years, he wrote psalms that continue to shape the prayers of the church. The waiting formed him into a king who could shepherd others with compassion.

Formation always comes before fulfillment. 

We also experience seasons that resemble Babylon. We may carry wounds that do not heal quickly. We may pray for circumstances to change and receive no immediate answer. We may feel trapped, overlooked, or forgotten. Yet in those places, God forms faith that is patient, generous, and steadfast. Spiritual maturity does not develop while we flee difficulty. It develops when we remain attentive to God within it.

In my own journey after the accident, healing did not come as I hoped. However, the Word became my daily nourishment. Prayer became my breath. The presence of Christ became my rest. My circumstances did not shift, but my heart did. The place that once felt dark became a space of communion. My Babylon became my Eden because God was there.

 Conclusion

To live faithfully in Babylon is to trust that God is forming life, character, and love in the hidden places of everyday obedience. It means praying for our surroundings, serving without recognition, loving without return, and practicing gratitude in ordinary moments. Waiting becomes a teacher. Perseverance becomes a sanctuary.

The promise of Jeremiah 29:11 is a promise of God’s steadfast presence throughout the entire journey of formation. The slow seasons of waiting and endurance are not empty years. They are holy time where God reshapes our desires, heals our motives, and teaches us to love him for who he is. When we remain faithful in the place where he has placed us, peace begins to grow quietly. The heart softens. Compassion deepens. Hope becomes stable. May we learn to remain where God has placed us with prayerful trust, believing that he is forming a future more beautiful than anything we could construct for ourselves.