Do Not Be Afraid

Jeremiah 1:4-8 NIV

 

“The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

 

‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’

 

‘Alas, Sovereign Lord,’ I said, ‘I do not know how to speak; I am too young.’

 

But the Lord said to me, ‘Do not say, “I am too young.” You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.”

 

Now, we are not all called to be prophets, but we who are God’s holy people, his special possession, are all called to proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light (1 Peter 2:9). And to proclaim is to herald, and to herald is to preach, and so we are all to be those who preach, who herald, and who proclaim the message of the gospel of our salvation to the ungodly and to the unrepentant of this world.

 

And if we read Psalms 139 it tells us that God created our inmost being, and he is the one who knit us together in the womb’s of our mothers. And we learn that all the days ordained for us were written in God’s book before one of them came to be. And if we read a few more Scriptures we learn that those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. And we learn that God called us to a holy calling before the ages began, before he laid the foundation of the earth.

 

[Ps 139:13-16; Rom 8:29; 2 Tim 1:8-9; Eph 1:3-4; 1 Pet 1:14-16; 1 Co 12]

 

So, with that understanding we can identify with Jeremiah here in his calling of God. But we may also identify with some of his reluctance, too. For he obviously felt he was not qualified for the task before him, i.e. that he was ill equipped to do the assignment. And for us it may not be that we feel as though we are too young, but we may feel as though we are too old, or that we are not smart enough or educated enough, or whatever might be our reasoning for resisting the call of God on our lives.

 

Now I will share with you two personal examples here, which I have probably shared before, but I will give the shortened versions of them. But, for example, back in 2002 I believed God was calling me to go back to college at age 52. Now I had graduated high school with a 1.4 GPA and I had finished as much of college as I did the first time with a 2.5 GPA, but it was my music classes which brought that GPA up a little. For I was not very scholastic and I had little confidence in my ability to learn much.

 

So, when the Lord called me to go back to college at age 52, although I went, I was very fearful. I did not think I would pass the entrance exam, but I did, but then when I began the classes, I kept feeling like I could not do this, and so I had to keep praying it through, keep trusting the Lord, keep believing that the Lord would help me, and he did. And what I learned there was that I could learn which was necessary for God’s next calling on my life.

 

For two years later he called me to write out what he teaches me from his word each day and to put it on the internet. Now back then it wasn’t like it is now exactly, for I had a lot of unlearning and relearning and new learning to do, and so a lot of it was the Lord teaching me what I needed to learn and showing me where I had learned things wrongly, etc. But I had to be open to hearing from him and I had to be willing to learn, to believe I could learn.

 

Seven years later he then called me to write simple songs of faith, and so I did, even though I had never done anything quite like this before, and boy did I have a lot of learning to do. Writing music is not easy, I guarantee you. And then a year later he called me to professionally record one of the songs. But I didn’t know it was him calling me, at first, and so I resisted, but then I was challenged to pray about it, and I did, and so the song got recorded.

 

So, what was the point of me sharing all of that with you? It is that if we are the Lord’s true servants and messengers, and if we are following him in his ways, and we are not walking in sin, he is going to call us to do things like he called Jeremiah. But he may call us to do things we never did before or we think we are ill equipped to do or that we are too young or too old to do. And so we have to realize that God will supply all we need to do them if we will trust him with our lives and if we will move forward in faith.

 

And lastly, when we do step out in faith, and we accept God’s callings on our lives, and we do things we never thought possible before, or things we never would have ever dreamed of, and so we are obeying him now in doing and in saying the things he gives us to do and to say, we are going to have enemies who are going to oppose us and who will come against us and who will try to trip us up, but we are not to be afraid of them. But we are to keep moving forward by the grace of God in doing what God has called us to do.

 

Video Talk

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A Believer’s Prayer

 

An Original Work / July 31, 2012

 

With my whole heart, Lord, I pray

To be Yours, and Yours always.

Lead me in Your truth today.

May I love You, and obey.

Lead me in Your righteousness.

When I sin, may I confess;

Bow before You when I pray;

Live for You and You always.

 

Love You, Jesus, You’re my friend.

Life with You will never end.

You are with me through each day,

Giving love and peace always.

You will ne’er abandon me.

From my sin You set me free.

You died on that cruel tree,

So I’d live eternally.

 

Soon You’re coming back for me;

From this world to set me free;

Live with You eternally.

Oh, what joy that brings to me.

I will walk with You in white;

A pure bride, I’ve been made right

By the blood of Jesus Christ;

Pardoned by His sacrifice.

 

https://vimeo.com/114796263