August 9
Jeremiah 12:1-15:21
When I entered residency in 1988, my apprenticeship in becoming a functional physician began. Initially there was a tremendous amount of supervision over even the most mundane tasks. The cases that I was placed on were simpler in nature. Once my confidence and their confidence that I was proficient enough was satisfied, the complexity of the cases and the decision making increased. I do remember those medical students and those residents who did not make it. Some had divided minds and were unwilling to focus on the apprenticeship that they had chosen. I still remember vividly those early months after residency was completed and I realized that I moved from being supervised to making decisions on my own and supervising others. But, isn't this the case with every vocational choice? We all apprentice in our respective fields before we are usable to others. This is also the case in life, in general. To serve as a spouse, where you can focus your love and attention on another, you need to have established some personal security in your walk. Likewise, the new couple must go through some time of apprenticeship before they can add on the complexity of raising a child. Through this all we must not lose sight of one thing: the most important apprenticeship of all is in our relationship with God. We must continually keep our eyes on Him, stay fixed in His Word, if we are to move from the training ground to the point that we can actually be used by Him. This training ground often involves various trials. If we avoid them, or fail them, then God will continue to offer these same trials again until we learn what we are to learn from them. As His ambassadors, we are to expect trials, and we must seek the opportunities that He sends us, His emissaries, in an often very hostile world.
We read in Jeremiah 12:5, "“If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, in which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?" We must realize that though we read in Jeremiah 1:5, "“I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”", Jeremiah still had to respond to the calling on His life. Throughout this process, if he were to be used mightily by God, there would come training and trials. It is easy to miss some of the difficult tasks that Jeremiah was given. In Jeremiah 13, we read of the message given by God which involved Jeremiah placing a new linen loincloth in a hole in the rocks of the Euphrates River. This might not seem like much, but understand that the Euphrates river was 300 miles away. So, for this one message, he was asked to walk a total of 1200 miles if you include both trips. This would have been literally months of walking for just one message. He could have responded by asking God if he could place it in some rocks by the Jordan River which would be a much shorter trip, but he didn't. He was not the only prophet in Jerusalem at the time. We read of the others in 15:13-15, "Then I said, “O Sovereign Lord, their prophets are telling them, ‘All is well—no war or famine will come. The Lord will surely send you peace.’” Then the Lord said, “These prophets are telling lies in my name. I did not send them or tell them to speak. I did not give them any messages. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen or heard. They speak foolishness made up in their own lying hearts. Therefore, this is what the Lord says: I will punish these lying prophets, for they have spoken in my name even though I never sent them. They say that no war or famine will come, but they themselves will die by war and famine!"
So, how are you doing in your apprenticeship? Whether we realize it or not, that is what we are in. Though once we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and in so doing, we are adopted and become His children and heirs of the kingdom, there is still the question of what our role will be while on this earth. Will we be faithful through the trials? Will we become distracted and venture off course for a season? God wants to use each and every one of us for His glory, but are we rendering ourselves usable? As Jeremiah 12:5 states, if we are wearied by the lighter tasks, how can He give us the weightier tasks? We read in James 1:2-4, " Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles of any kind come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing." May we learn to adopt an attitude which is not "why me", but "what is it that You are trying to reveal to me, Lord", and grow closer to what it is that He wants us to be in the process.
Messages from Pastor Lloyd Pulley: