Our passage today contains one of the most oft quoted verses in the Bible - particularly on birth announcements.
Jeremiah 1:5 I knew you before I formed you in your mother's womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.
OK, so the "appointed you as my prophet" portion doesn't get quoted as often as the rest of it. This is an important thing to keep in mind - this verse is quoting the words of God spoken specifically to the prophet Jeremiah, and therefore is not directly applicable to us today.
However, there are still truths behind it we can learn from. God may not have appointed us as prophets to the nations, but He did know us before we were born or were even conceived. And though His plan for our lives may be different than the one He had planned for Jeremiah, the fact is that He still does have a plan for our lives. We all have a purpose. We all have things to do for God's glory. And we should do them both cheerfully and well. And, if at times in our lives we do not know of something specific that God wants us to do, we know that we are all called to love, obey, and serve God, and to love each other. So while waiting for any specific purpose or plan to be unfolded, we can always be diligent to serve God in the moment and circumstance in which we have been placed.
And, as v6-7 confirm, our age is irrelevant (in this case youth, but the same truth would apply to old age), as is any other excuse we may come up with. God is always with us. If He asks us to do something, He will provide a way to do it through His strength.
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage: Jeremiah 4-6
3 comments:
Good point about us not having any excuses for doing what God has planned for us. He will equip us and be with us.
Jeremiah 2:22
Although you wash yourself with soap
and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Sovereign Lord.
It seems like God is pleading with Israel and Judah to come back and worship Him, throughout this reading. Is He not doing the same for us when we continue to sin today? What love He shows to His people back then and us today, while we are alive here on earth we have a chance to turn from evil and follow Him, let's take that opportunity!
Many verses stuck out to me today, but especially Jeremiah 1:6-9, more specifically v7 which says:
'The LORD replied, "Don't say, 'I am too young', for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you."'
I'm guilty of thinking this way. That I'm too young, or too immature to be able to make an impact spiritually on people. But Mary, the mother of Jesus, was around 14 when she became pregnant with the Son of God. And if that's not a good enough example, I don't know what is.
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