God's Decree

I came across this passage when I opened my Bible tonight:

This is what God said:

"Before I shaped you in the womb,
I knew all about you.
Before you saw the light of day,
I had holy plans for you:
A prophet to the nations--
that's what I had in mind for you."

But I said, "Hold it, Master God! Look at me.
I don't know anything. I'm only a boy!"

God told me, "Don't say, 'I'm only a boy.'
I'll tell you where to go and you'll go there.
I'll tell you what to say and you'll say it.
Don't be afraid of a soul.
I'll be right there, looking after you."
God's Decree.

--Jeremiah 1:4-8, The Message

This seems pretty straightforward, doesn't it? After I read it, I started thinking about how this happens with all of us. Like, God empowers us, gifts us, in ways that are pleasing to Him and that we should use for Him; but we make up excuses. "I'm too young." "I don't have time for that right now." "I'm not all that good, really" (even though we're very certain of our capabilities).

Are we so full of ourselves and what we can do that we have to horde it? Do we feel like the only way to be fulfilled is to use our gifts for our pleasure, rather than God's? He gave us our talents! The least we could do is give some of it back.

I'm really bad about this too. But I don't want to relinquish just some of it. I want Him to have it all! I was actually writing to Him about this, and I was about to promise Him that I'd change. But then I stopped. I couldn't do it. It was like He was saying, "Evelyn. Come on. Your word has no power over what you do or don't do. It's My Word that makes the changes." And it's so true. It's God's Word that makes us different, better, and brings us to our knees so that we can offer it all to Him.

How many of us want to get to that point? Where our lives our not our own, that they belong to God? I think that we should want that, since it's God's decree that we do it. Read it again. He states pretty clearly that He has a mission for us, and we will do as He says, because He's all-knowing. Master God. A different version says "Sovereign Lord". All of these names center around the God who gave us our unique talents and wrote our life stories. It's not easy to get there, of course. But that's why He gave us the Bible, so we can get to know Him better and grow closer to Him. By becoming fully His, we change through Him.