83 GOD F O O T ================================
- H O L D
READING
83 GOD’S CALL
PRAY Please help me to be listening for your voice today, dear Lord God. —————————————————————- READ Jeremiah 1:1-19. —————————————————————- THINK What did God promise to Jeremiah? —————————————————————- FOCUS ‘I can’t do it. I just can’t do it’. Do you talk like that sometimes; when a call comes to serve God in some way? jeremiah did. He gave God two reasons: 1. HE SAID HE WAS NOT OLD ENOUGH (6). He was very young maybe in his late teens. We all make excuses of age. As teenagers we are ‘too young’; as adults ‘too busy’; when we are retired we are ‘too old’! What reasons are you using now to avoid some opportunity for service? Are they reasons or excuses? 2. HE SAID HE WAS NOT CLEVER ENOUGH (6). But if he had thought he was clever, it would have ruled him out! It is hard for God to use self-confident people. It is not the gifts you think you have, but the ability God is able to give you. If God wants you to do something, he will give you the strength to do it. Your job is simply to believe it and go ahead. God answers Jeremiah’s excuses with a challenging view of the task and a couple of visions. In fact these visions depict such ordinary natural objects that they almost seem like the parables of Jesus. The almond tree means in Hebrew, the ‘watchful tree’ because its blossoms are the first to appear in Spring. this speaks of God’s watchfulness over his promises (12). Jeremiah faced forty years of unrelenting opposition. (Notice verses 18-19). Yet God kept him steadfast and saved him from becoming bitter and harsh. —————————————————————- PRAY Ask God to point out to you whether you are avoiding an opportunity for service. Be ready to obey!