Properly
Aligned
When the Lord called Jeremiah, he
faced much the same dilemma Moses faced when God called him. When Moses
offered his fourth of four excuses (“I am not eloquent”) as to why he
was unfit to approach Pharaoh, the Lord commissioned his brother Aaron
to be his spokesman. The big difference between the two men was in
their age. Moses was 80 years old when God called him, having walked
through the palaces of Egypt and rubbed shoulders with
royalty.Jeremiah, on the other hand, was a mere teenager, aged 17, when
God called.
Jeremiah had a similar reaction when
the Lord told him he was (1) KNOWN of God before he was formed in the
womb, (2) SANCTIFIED [set apart] before he departed the womb, and (3)
ORDAINED a prophet unto the nations (Jeremiah 1:5). Mighty big shoes!
God’s word must have come as a heavy dose of spiritual reality for this
young man inasmuch as God used past tenses to describe what he had
already set in motion for Jeremiah's future.
Jeremiah’s response: “Ah, Lord GOD!
behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child” (1:6). The Lord’s response: “Say not, I am a child: for thou
shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee
thou shalt speak” (1:7). Translation: “Jeremiah, I’m aware
of what you THINK you are. But I’m telling you what you REALLY are and
will become—a one-man wrecking crew to root out, and to pull down, and
to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant” (1:10).
A child of God makes a huge
miscalculation when he envisions his future based on prior experience.
Neither Moses nor Jeremiah had any prior experience to qualify them for
the role of prophet. Yet they became two of the greatest figures in
biblical history. The challenge for both men was to align
themselves properly with the mind of God. And that need is as great
today as it was in Jeremiah’s day. Why do we think so little about
ourselves when God has a superior mindset?
Genuine feelings of inadequacy can
transform themselves into a false humility when God tells us WHO we are
in Christ and we refuse to believe and act upon it. The believer in
Jesus is a joint-heir with Christ, a son of the Living God, one having
access into the holiest by the blood of Christ, able to pull down
spiritual strongholds, already in possession of his petitions in prayer
when he asks anything according to God’s will and God hears
him.
Jesus said the gates of Hell cannot
prevail against his Church. The OT Lord of hosts [heavenly armies] is
the NT Jesus of Nazareth. He’s our battle-tested, undefeated
Commander-in-Chief! No matter what we might THINK we are, it’s a
continual challenge to align ourselves properly with what God DECLARES
we are, and order our steps accordingly.
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