Bible Passage: Jeremiah 29:4-9

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Recommended Resources

• Check out Tracie’s new book, God’s Got You: Embracing New Beginnings with Courage and Confidence at my Amazon Storefront HERE
• Check out my book, Control Girl: Lessons on Surrendering Your Burden of Control From Seven Women in the Bible

Music: Cade Popkin

God’s Got You

Tracie Miles

Tracie Miles is the bestselling author of seven books, director of COMPEL Pro Writers Training at Proverbs 31 Ministries, and the founder of the Living Unbroken Divorce Recovery program. Her latest book is “God’s Got You: Embracing New Beginnings with Courage and Confidence.” She has three grown children, a son and daughter-in-law, and lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Connect with Tracie:

Website: traciemiles.com
Facebook: @p31traciemiles
Instagram: @traciemiles
X (Twitter): @traciewmiles

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Transcript

Shannon Popkin (00:00)
Tracy Miles is the bestselling author of seven books. She is the director of Compel Pro Writers Training at Proverbs 31 Ministries, and she’s the founder of the Living Unbroken divorce recovery program.

She has three grown children, a son -in -law and a daughter -in -law, and she lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

And today Tracy’s going to share the truth about new beginnings after life falls apart. Tracy, welcome to live like it’s true.

Shannon Popkin (00:32)
I’m so honored to have you here. And we’re going to be talking about your brand new book, God’s Got You, Embracing New Beginnings with Courage and Confidence. And so this book is sort of, you we were chatting before we hit record and talking about a little bit about your journey. So You talk in this book about lifequakes.

Tell us first about the life quake that happened eight years ago. And then I want to hear about some of the ways that God has brought you through that journey and the writing that has come out of it.

Yes.

Mm.

Mm. Mm.

Yeah.

Mmm.

right, yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

Mm

Hmm.

right, yeah.

Hmm.

for sure.

Mm

Well, you just compacted, you know, a whole bunch of life there into five minutes. and I am hearing you talk about Tracy, the wife, Tracy, mom, Tracy, the writer and the speaker, and you know how all of those overlap and, you know, just the pain of this life quake, as you call it.

this thing that changed all of that. It didn’t just change your marriage, right? sounds like you had invested a lot in trying to overcome some challenges. And so this was not a first time offense. This was a repeated pattern. so, yeah, just losing, like trying, like trying doing what you can. You know, I have a book.

called Control Girl. So you and I maybe have some things in common with wanting things to be under our own control, right? And I find it helpful to segment out like what I can control and what I cannot control. And so like, I think it’s wise to invest in a relationship or invest in a job or invest in a future, whatever it is. And yet also keep in mind, there are things that are out of our control

And so, you you were walking through this.

horrible experience of losing so much and yet God using that not only in your own life but as you are this broken vessel, know, being poured out. So thank you for your ministry and allowing us to kind of journey there with you, right, with these different books and experiencing the different kind of the aftermath, right, of the life quake. And so.

you know, we get you here on this interview. You’re eight years past this and God has done a lot of rebuilding in your life. And so I wanted us to talk about there’s a passage in your book where you’re talking about this verse from Jeremiah 29, 11. And Tracy, I love you because you’re just so honest. You’re like, OK, I’m a Jesus girl, but I’m not necessarily a theologian. And I was reading this verse for a long time and I was just kind of like,

maybe misinterpreting it for myself,

Shannon Popkin (07:36)
You know, Jeremiah 29, 11, that’s a verse that a lot of us know, maybe we’ve memorized it, says, 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. And so how did you put it there, Tracy? You said,

Shannon Popkin (07:53)
I’ve kind of made it like me and my little life and my little plans, right?

Yeah, little me. And so how did God open your eyes though to looking at that verse differently?

Alright.

Yes, it’s true.

Mm

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm.

Yeah, so true. I do think there is a problem with misappropriating verses or promises from God that don’t belong to us personally in our little slice of the timeline, like,

The Bible is a book that encompasses all of history, right? And so, we’re good Bible students when we look at the original text and the original audience and what God is saying in this particular moment in history.

So this verse is in a book called Jeremiah and the prophet Jeremiah is not a very popular prophet. if you read the early texts in Jeremiah, it’s like, my goodness, he is going after God’s people he compares them to prostitutes. He’s like, you’re going after everything else. God is your faithful.

husband in the relationship. He’s the provider, the protector, and you’re looking to everything else. And that’s who Jeremiah is. is like, is not holding back at all. He does not mince words. He is

faithful to deliver God’s very harsh messages to the people. first, Jeremiah predicted that Israel was gonna fall to Babylon. God’s promises were that God’s people would live in God’s promised land and that they would have, you

a land flowing with milk and honey, like that’s how it was supposed to be. And they got there and now they’re not there anymore. They’re exported to Babylon and he predicted that. So he’s the guy who predicted this bad thing was going to happen. And he also advised the people, nation of Israel, God’s people, he advised them to surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. Nobody wanted to hear that.

And so he’s sending this letter in Jeremiah 29 to the surviving people of Israel who are captives in Babylon. And so he’s sending this letter through this guy named Elisha, I think, or Elisa, I don’t know So this is a letter and we kind of picture the people gathering to hear this letter. And I would love for you to read verses four through nine in the NIV translation. Go ahead, Tracy.

Okay, so here’s this letter. Let’s start with the first part. He’s telling them build houses, settle down, you like you’re here to stay. Why is this surprising to these people who are in exile?

I wanna go home.

Yeah, they’re like, they want the message of we’re going back or like, pray that Babylon falls and we can be set free, not plan a garden like that. When you plant a garden, you’re expecting to be there at least for a season, right? And get married, you know, build houses, wait.

What? Build a house. Like we’re supposed to be in the tents. Like we’re the people who are in the tents until we’re in the promised land. you’re telling us to stay here and build a house. that’s for permanent. That is not what we want to hear from God. Yeah. And I imagine Tracy, that that’s a little bit what it felt like after your divorce. maybe earlier before the divorce, you were like, let’s work on this. Let’s get this.

fixed, not let’s move to a new, I don’t know, did you move to a new house? Did you like, what were the ways that you had to plant a garden settle down, after this divorce that kind of made it feel final?

you

Yeah. Did you want to just sell it so you could get out from under the memories and the history there? or was it just a financially more, I don’t know, advisable to move?

Yeah, that was their

Yeah. Well, and I mean, you know, these verses, they almost sound like warm and like build a house, settle down, plant a garden. But these people are in captivity. this is not a happy like, let’s, I just saw on your Instagram, your daughter bought a house with her husband, right? And I mean, these are exciting, fun times in your life. You know, there’s a new baby coming in your family too, or is it two babies coming? Yes. I mean, that’s so exciting.

all sorts of new beginnings and these are wonderful times and yet to picture that in a land that is not your captives, that just puts a damper on everything. And so we have to read that into this context. This does sound kind of sweet and like build a house, plant a garden. No, this is like, don’t go home. In your lifetime, don’t go home.

I mean, in verse four, he says, to those I carried into exile, God brought them here. And that’s really hard as his people to wrestle with, why God would you bring me here? And why would you, I am a woman of God, I’m following you, I’m trying to raise these kids to your glory. And yet why would you leave us here with no dad in the picture? Like no husband, no dad. And

I got to figure out how to pay for college. These are really hard things. And so I think there is a parallel with the desolation that you are feeling and that they were feeling. But what I hear you is like, those times when there’s this lifequake, maybe towards the beginning, you were dealing with all the things that were out of your control.

You know, like I gotta lay those down. I gotta lay down these dreams. I have to surrender to God. But in this season, it’s time to talk about what can I do? What should I do? How should I move forward and make plans? And, you know, let’s just settle into this is not gonna be the way that I hoped, but yeah, yeah. So how has God taught you through that?

Mm.

Mm -hmm. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Mm -hmm. Yeah, I mean, if we back up all the way, we recognize that we’re all in exile. This is not like we’re in exile from the Garden of Eden, right? God intended for us to be living forever in His beautiful creation. we were like at the beginning of Jeremiah, where we’ve gone after everything else. We have not been faithful to God. He’s always been faithful to us, but we have not.

And so we chose this exile for ourselves And so we’re waiting on the new creation. All of us are in exile. Even if we get the new house, we get the baby, whatever it is. Like there are happy things that happen along the way, but we’re not in Eden and we know it.

And so to some extent, we’re all having to choose how is this exile going to play out? Am I going to just be a passive? Like it’s just happening to me and I can do nothing about it? Or are we going to live where God has placed us and plant the garden, know, sell the house, know, do you write the book?

you know choose the choose the happy demeanor when the kids wake up like what whatever it is how are we going to live in this exile and like these are god’s instructions for his people and i mean maybe you know maybe it doesn’t exactly one to one parallel with us but he’s telling them to pray for the city that they’re in you know seek peace and prosperity of the city where

God, again, he says, to which I have carried you into exile. This is God’s plan for them. And pray to the Lord for it because as this city prospers, you will prosper also. we each have a choice of how our life is going to affect those around us. I mean, we can’t, you know, to some degree, we can’t get ourselves back to the promised land on our own. Like, there are so many things that are out of our control, but we can.

plant a garden, have good relationships as far as it depends on us. We can invest in people, invest in our neighborhoods, invest in our church. We can live in exile with a bigger perspective. And I just want to ask you too, though, about verse eight where God says, there are these other prophets and these other people saying that they have dreams and that

know, prophecies and they’re saying they’re from God. And so these are the people who are saying like, no, this is not going to be a long time where you’re going to be in exile. God’s going to send you back to the promised land. It’s going to happen really quick. They’re, you know, Babylon’s going to fall. They’re predicting all of these things. And God’s like, no, no, no, I didn’t say that. And so I, know, do you see any, any parallels with what we as Christians

Do we have people who are telling us things that God hasn’t said to us like giving us false hope?

Mm, right.

Yes, yeah.

You

Yeah, I mean, I just keep going back to the fact that God has said twice here that he carried them into exile. So like this was his plan, right? And so there are people, I mean, you’re talking about those who would be like very sweetly or just wanting to encourage you and saying like, I’m sure this is all gonna turn out. It’s gonna be, maybe your husband’s gonna come back or maybe it’s all good. Your kids are gonna be fine. And I mean,

I don’t find all of those promises in the Bible that everything’s gonna turn out the way that I hoped that all the bad things are gonna get reversed and erased. I mean, I do ultimately in the new creation. Like if you extend it all the way out to there, yes, all of God’s promises for his people will come true when Jesus returns and sets everything right and we get to live forever in the new creation.

where there is no more sin and no more brokenness and no more exile. Yes, if you extend the timeline out that far, but just for my lifetime here in the here and now, mean, there just are not a lot of promises for prospering for, mean, like he’s saying, pray for this city as it prospers, you will prosper.

We don’t have, like for them, that’s not the kind of prospering they wanted. They wanted to be back in the promised land. They wanted their freedom. They wanted to be independent. They did not want to be in exile. And so, yeah, I think we can fall off in one of two directions. We can either suppose that God is going to fix it all here in my lifetime. And, I can trust Him because He’s going to make this all right.

Or we can fall off in the other ditch and say, God doesn’t know anything about this. He is not in control. doesn’t see me. He’s not invested. And so I can’t trust him. And I’m to have to just do this myself. Right. And neither of those are correct. And so we have to stay on the path in the middle saying like, yes, this is an exile that I am in. is eventually going to make all things right. But for the moment, he has me in this exile and I can trust him.

that’s really what you’ve lived here, Tracy, but how has God himself been faithful to you in this time?

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, yeah.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Mm hmm. Yeah, he knows the day. He knows the day you were born. He knows. Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

Wow.

Right.

you

Mm

Yeah. Yes.

Yes.

Mm

Yeah, yeah, no, that’s what I hear God saying. Like it takes work to build a house, right? It takes work to plant a garden. It takes work to plant a wedding, right? These are plans and you’re involved. You’re investing in the future, not just for yourself, but for those around you. and yet in that process, Tracy, I love how seen you were by God in those moments, like to choose the exact dates.

for the day that your husband left. Like that’s the exile, that’s the past. And yet in this, it’s not like it’s all fixed. It’s not like it’s exactly what you hoped for for your family. And even I’m sure this ministry that seven years later, God opened the door for this ministry. I’m sure it’s not just like, just a breeze and it never, it’s never hard. Like, no, you’re still investing and you’re…

investing in other people and in those who will read these books that are going to be produced from your ministry here at compel pro so so talk to the woman though who or the man who’s listening who is like maybe newly in this life quake newly in exile who who really just wants to get back to

how things were supposed to be, right? How can they live like it’s true that this exile is where God has them for now and yet God is the one who tells us to plant the garden, settle down, right? Make plans.

Right, so except.

Yeah.

Right. Right.

Yeah, I think, you know, we can live like it’s true that God has us, right? He has us in this time. So Tracy, tell us where we can find this book, God’s Got You, and your other ministries. Where can people connect with you?

We’ll send links to all of those things in the show notes, but thank you so much for reminding us that God’s got us, right? He’s got you.