40 Days of Preparation Day 35

Today, Friday March 30, 2012, is the thirtieth-fifth day of preparing our hearts, souls and minds for the most high of all Christian holy days, Easter Sunday. Today I need to “put off” lying and “put on” honesty. Have you ever been amused by a child who has yet to realize that you know the truth about that which they are desperately trying to convince you otherwise. It is precisely on such occasions with my own sons that cause me to understand the curse which heredity can be. Whether they were toddlers, young children, older children, or teenagers their belief that they were capable of inventing new ways of pulling “the wool” over their parent’s eyes was amusing and at times bemusing.

This is probably how God feels about us when we try to explain to him why we can not obey Him, or why the clear teaching of His word does not apply to us in our particular circumstance. I have found that too often much of the time I have spent in prayer was wasted by my feeble attempts to rationalize my sin and disobedience to God. I seem to become willfully ignorant of the lesson God taught Jeremiah.

4 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” 6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.” 7 But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a youth’; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. 8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the Lord.” 9 Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. 10 See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:4–10 (ESV)

Notice that God tells Jeremiah that He has known him since He was formed in his mothers womb. Further, God tells Jeremiah that He consecrated him and appointed him. The word translated consecrated means that God has set Jeremiah apart. It comes from the idea of being made holy. God has also appointed Jeremiah to be a prophet to the nations. This was a very strange idea to Jeremiah. His understanding of God did not expand beyond his own nation.

When you take the time to really think about it you realize how many similarities there are to God’s calling of Jeremiah and how God calls and sends Christians today. First, you understand that God has known you since your beginning. Furthermore, in your beginning God set you apart to be different from the rest of the people on the planet. He made you to be unique and in your uniqueness He wants to use you. Being holy to God means that you will be different, very different, and that is not simply O.K., it’s the way you are supposed to be. (If you are the parent of a teenager especially a daughter you need to drive this truth deep into their being).  Next, God has a specific task in mind for you. He called Jeremiah to be a prophet who brought the bad news of judgment to his own people and the people in every nation.

God has called each Christian to proclaim the good news of our sins being forgiven through the sacrifice of His son to all the people in our own family, town and world. Like Jeremiah we want to make excuses for why we cannot go.  Notice what God told Jeremiah. Negatively God tells Jeremiah and us, “Do not say.”  Many of us waste much time negotiating with God.  We try to convince ourselves that we can’t go, we can’t serve, or at least we can’t do it right now.  When you begin to bargain with God about these things remember He said “Do not say.”  Next, God tells us  “Do not be afraid.”  When we are honest about our motivations many of us do not obey God’s calling to tell others the truth about His son because we are afraid.  The thought of simply sharing our faith in Jesus with another person scares us to death.  Some fear what other people might think or say about us if we were to actually talk to them about spiritual things.

Remember God’s answer to Jeremiah “to whom I send you, you shall go! And whatever I command you, you shall speak!” (Why should I not be afraid?) “because I am with you to deliver you.” Our fear and refusal to be obedient in going and inviting others to place their faith in Jesus Christ reminds of the following story.

This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody’s job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Before we begin to negotiate with God we need to remember how foolish our own children seem to us when they attempt to rationalize and explain their own disobedience.  When we refuse to do what Everybody is supposed to do and what Anybody could have done then Nobody does it.  This means that the Somebody whom we were supposed to tell will not hear and that Somebody, is Somebody’s child, and Anybody knows that they might even be yours.