Leaning Upon God from Birth

 Jeremiah 1:4-10, Psalm 71:1-6

Jeremiah receives his calling as a prophet from God to which he replies, “I can’t do it since I’m only a boy.” God reminds him that God knew him before he was in his mother’s womb and had him consecrated – set aside – for this job before he was born. God calms his fears by stressing how God will direct him to the people God sends and he will speak whatever God commands him to say.

It is as if God tells him to lean on the Lord. This is eloquently stated in our Psalm that God is the Psalmist’s hope and trust that he has leaned on from birth. God has been his protector since he was in his mother’s womb. The Psalm begins stating that the Lord is who he has taken refuge, a strong fortress he can depend on to save him from the wicked, unjust, and cruel.

Back to Jeremiah’s call, the Lord tells him not to be afraid of the people God is sending him to since the Lord will be with him and will deliver him. To encourage him further the Lord touches his mouth saying, “I have put my words in your mouth.” God doesn’t sugar coat the work the Lord has appointed for him. God will have Jeremiah pluck up and pull down, destroy, and overthrow, to build and to plant.

Perhaps it is in doing God’s work that the Psalmist encounters wicked, unjust, and cruel people wanting to obstruct his work. Yet he depends on the God he has leaned on since he was in his mother’s womb. For this the Psalmist is full of praise.

Do you believe that God knew you before your birth and had a special job for you? Did God know when you would become a Christian and become an ambassador of God’s love? Do you have trust and hope that God will pull you through the hard times?

Many of us have been blessed with knowing and depending on God from childhood. Others find the Lord later in life like the apostle Paul but still can have this hope and trust – being able to lean upon God from their spiritual birth.

We may not have such a high calling as Jeremiah or Paul but God has gifted you to be an ambassador of God’s love wherever God places you. May we continually lean upon the Lord, our protector, our hope, and our guide for how we can best serve God.

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