Jeremiah 1

The calling of Jeremiah to take up the work of God can serve as a reminder for us. After the Lord came to Jeremiah telling him of His predestination of Jeremiah becoming a prophet, Jeremiah declined by saying 'for I am a youth' (v. 6). But the Lord rebutted by telling Jeremiah that "Do not say, 'I am a youth'" (v. 7), instead He insured Jeremiah that "I am with you" (v. 8).

Likewise today, we are each made a vessle for God. We are each 'called according to His purpose' (Rm 8:28) to perform our duties as Christians. Therefore, we must not give excuses to the Lord stating our unworth. We must not be like Jeremiah pushing away the responsibilities because we believe ourselves to be unfit. God told Jeremiah that "I am with you" (v.8). God will also tell us the same if we are striving to accomplish His work. If God is with us, then what is impossible will become possible. Afterall, we are doing everything for the glory of God and not our own. Because we are unfit, we come to see the power of God work within us. Because of our unworth, we will feel the honor to serve the Lord. If we were fit, we would've believed we accomplished the work with our own hands and became proud. If we were worthy, we would've became self-righteous. Therefore, it is through our weaknesses that God will make us strong. Therefore, only strive to do our best with the Lord's help.

Secondly, Jeremiah's mission is to 'root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant' (v. 10). Because the chosen people have strayed far from God, they must be plucked and destroyed before they can be built up again. This tells us that in order for us to be rebuilt as the chosen people, we must be rooted out first. It also gives us the hope that even if we were destroyed, because we are the chosen ones, we will one day be rebuilt. If we were to be one of the non-chosen people (e.g. Babylonians), we will never have the chance to be rebuilt after being destroyed. Therefore, we must not take advantage of this hope God has given us and linger any longer. We must come to be rooted in God and be 'planted by the rivers of water' (Ps. 1:3) so we can draw life from Him. It is only then that we will cease to stray away from God, and it is then that we will cease to wither away.