Samuel D. High
sdhigh@aristotle.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Apostle Tom <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wed, 2 Jul 2008 15:42:04 -0500
To: <pressingon@hotmail.com>
Subject: Morning Manna (July 3); BP: Jer. 1; RBTTY: Acts 12; Job 25-27
July 3 “Be Not Afraid”
“Then said I, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak—for I am a child.’ But, the Lord said unto me, ‘Say not, I am a child—for you shall go to all that I shall send you. And whatsoever I command you, you shall speak. Be not afraid of their faces—for I am with you to deliver you,’ says the Lord.”
Jeremiah 1:6-8
In our inadequacy, we find His adequacy; in our insufficiency, we find His sufficient supply (Phil. 4:19).
Excuses.
How easily we give them, along with our objections, to the Lord when we know He’s calling us. Like Moses, we stammer and stutter, reminding Him of our inability (Ex. 4:10) while forgetting that He simply asks for our availability. Or, like Gideon, we point to our lack of resources or experience (Judg. 6:15), forgetting that He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent.
The Lord had just told Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you—and before you came forth out of the womb I sanctified you and ordained you a prophet unto the nations” (v.5). Simply put, He was reminding Jeremiah (and us) that long before we entered this world, He knew us and has a beautiful plan for our lives.
The problem is we forget this and change the focus from Him—our Jehovah-Jireh (“The Lord God Who Supplies/Provides”)—to ourselves. That’s why Jeremiah said, “Wait a minute, Lord! I think we’ve got a problem here. I can’t speak—for I’m a child. Getting up in front of a crowd—especially a hostile one—is beyond me. You know I get stage-fright and my knees knock when I have to get up in front of folks. Besides, I’m too young. You need someone older and more experienced.”
No wonder He got mad at Moses when he said “I’m not eloquent and haven’t been from the time You’ve known me. I’m slow of speech and get tongue-tied” (Ex. 4:10, 14). He said, “You just don’t get it, do you dufus? Who has made man’s mouth? Have not I, the Lord? Now, therefore, go and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall say” (vv.11-12).
Oh, dear Pilgrim, how we grieve the Father’s Holy Heart when we focus on our inadequacies rather than His sufficiency. How flimsy our excuses when offered to the One Who both formed us in our mother’s womb and has promised to “direct our paths” when we “trust in Him with all our heart and don’t rely on our own reasonings and resources” (Prov. 3:5-6).
Just as He said to Moses (“I will be with your mouth”—Ex. 4:15) and to Jeremiah (“I am with you to deliver you”) so does He say to us: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5b). As someone said, “Where He leads us, He will keep and equip us.” So true, so true. Therefore, we should proceed by faith, always assured that our sparrow-watching God knows us and our every need. “Do not fear, Pilgrim”—that’s His message to us in these last days when everything around us is falling apart.
No comments:
Post a Comment