Devotional: Jeremiah 1.4-19

Jeremiah 1.6-8:

"Ah, Sovereign Lord," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the Lord said to me..."Do not be afraid...I am with you and will rescue you," declares the Lord.

In the last devotional we talked about how we are called to be God's prophets - God's spokespeople - wherever we find ourselves. In the verses for this devotional we read about Jeremiah's call as a prophet. God tells Jeremiah that he has called him to be his prophet and that he did so before Jeremiah was even formed in the womb. Naturally enough, Jeremiah is a bit thrown off by this. Not only is God saying that he will be a prophet, but now Jeremiah has the weight of God's eternal design on his shoulders too.

So Jeremiah whines, "But I'm just a child." God, in his infinite wisdom, knows just what to say. In essence God simply says, "Sure, you may be a child. But that doesn't matter. I'm with you. Hold my hand. Just trust me and I'll walk you through this, no matter how hard it might be."

It is my guess that God is calling each of us to speak up for him in our worlds but we are scared. We all have our own reasons: fear of sharing our faith, don't want to sound stupid, don't want to ruffle feathers, not really that confident in our faith, whatever. God knows and he will walk with us through whatever obstacles we face. And we will face obstacles. The cross is foolishness and weakness to the world (1 Cor 1.22-25). But no matter what, the Lord whispers to each of us in our innermost beings, "I am with you and will rescue you."

Thanks be to the Lord!