Jeremiah 1:5-10 (The Message) 5"Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you: A prophet to the nations—that's what I had in mind for you." 6But I said, "Hold it, Master God! Look at me. I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!" 7-8God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.' I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there. I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it. Don't be afraid of a soul. I'll be right there, looking after you." God's Decree. 9-10God reached out, touched my mouth, and said, "Look! I've just put my words in your mouth—hand-delivered! See what I've done? I've given you a job to do among nations and governments—a red-letter day! Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish, And then start over, building and planting."
Have you felt it? Have you felt God’s call to your life as it comes to Jeremiah? Jeremiah’s peace of mind and his desire to mind his own business is shattered by the call of God. But, before God calls Jeremiah to do anything, God reminds him I have known you. I have known you in the nudity of your body and of your spirit. I have known your character, defects and all. I consecrated you. You are special to me, you matter to me. Your success or failure is not going to change that. And, I have appointed you. I have special plans for your life. Fulfilling that plan may be hard, but you will also have the great pleasure of serving me.
When the call of God came to Isaiah, he said “here I am, Lord, send me.” But Jeremiah was not like Isaiah. He questioned. He excused. Jeremiah resisted the call of God. He could have done worse and dismissed the call of God.
It is one thing to resist God’s call and quite another to dismiss it. God says, no excuses. God will win, but not by force. We can struggle as hard as we want. We can struggle as long as we want to. But, there is something to be said for letting go, for finally giving in to God’s call. For it is in acceptance that clarity and conviction come. It is in acceptance that we develop sensitivity to the voice of God in our thoughts and the midst of the daily routine. It is in acceptance that we become aware of the hand of God engineering our circumstances. It is in acceptance that we develop the habit of yielding over to God those things we cannot change and we accept responsibility to change the things God calls us to.
I am too young. I am too old. I am too busy. I am too tired. And raising children is a fulltime job. And I have to pay the bills. Sometimes there are good reasons for our excuses. And, who really wants to be the troubler of Israel, or of our society or of our church or of our family?
Your job is to pull up and tear down, take apart and demolish. In our world we do not want to give up that we might gain. But, before there was a resurrection there was a cross. The message is not the ending but a paving of the way for a new beginning to start.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope January 28, 2001
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell
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