“‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth.’” (Jeremiah 1:5-6)
Many people in today’s world seek to circumvent God’s will in order to accomplish their own. They want to fulfill their needs and desires because they think they deserve it. Yet this is not love. As Saint Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 13, love is focused on others and on God, not on self. For this reason, we believers ought to note with thoughtful sobriety the opening words the Lord spoke to Jeremiah. These words remind us of God’s love for and His providential care over every human being as they indicate that God is fundamentally involved in the creation and formation of every human being, even those whose lives are terminated before birth. The Lord gives life. He determines and shapes the DNA of every individual. He creates each for His purposes and calls each to do His will. If we truly love God, we will act and work in accordance with His will.
This is why Jeremiah did when the Lord called him to be a prophet. This occurred at the start of godly King Josiah’s religious reformation. The Lord called Jeremiah to proclaim God’s coming judgment on Judah and her people for their inequities. Such judgment would surely come; Josiah’s reforms would merely delay it. Jeremiah did not know this still hesitated to take up the call. The problem was that he knew his own temperament, that he was not wise, strong, or gifted enough to be a prophet. He knew that he could not do what the Lord asked of him.
Nevertheless, the Lord promised to give him all the resources and strength to carry out the call. In fact, whenever God calls one of us to do His work in any way, He always supplies us with the power, authority, words, wisdom, and love we need so that weakness, inexperience, and lack of ability is never an excuse: it is what qualifies us. We cannot thwart God’s will no matter how inept we think we are. The power of God is in the Word that He gives us. We must always use it as we seek to preach the gospel to others so that they may know that faith in Jesus is the only way to peace with God and man.