Awaken to Your Calling

Awaken to Your Calling

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; and I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jer. 1:5.

The Lord’s eyes were on Jeremiah from the womb. He was sanctified—set aside for God’s special treatment—and God’s goal was to make a prophet out of him. Everything Jeremiah experienced and went through in his childhood, and later on, was carefully planned by God to mold him. Throughout all this time Jeremiah must have also been very humble, with an ear to hear, because the Lord could appoint him his task when he was still quite a young man.

It is a great thing when we are sanctified from our childhood on. Then we are hedged in even while we are in this evil world by having received something in us that holds us back, whereas others can freely do all kinds of evil. Perhaps we have also been protected by the prayers and exhortations of God-fearing parents. However, it can take a long time before we really understand God’s goodness and care, so that we are prepared to listen and obey with all our heart.

Samuel had an ear and a heart for God’s voice early in his life. He said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” He was willing to be molded and used at an early age.

Most people become stuck in a stiff and stubborn self-will. They have their own interests, their own thoughts, and their own opinions. The Lord, in His love, must often give such people a rough treatment. We read that He leads them right down to the gates of death in order to remove pride from man. He seeks to awaken their ears and bow their hearts by means of tribulation and adversity. We can bring many unnecessary tribulations and sufferings upon ourselves because of stubbornness. Many people are never bowed, while others humble themselves only on their deathbed; but the precious life’s task that they were meant to take up, is lost forever.

The Lord has to lead a person down so that he becomes humble of heart before He can open his ear and use him in His service. However, only a few enter this state early enough so that they can enter their life’s work for which they have been ordained. Most of them are too strong in themselves, and their interests are far too earthly in the midst of wanting to serve God. They only humble themselves to a certain extent, and so they never come into an effective ministry.

The Lord had a Peter to send to Caesarea, “Who will tell you words by which you and all your household will be saved.” Acts 11:14. The Lord needs such humble and faithful servants today—those who have words by which people can be saved, and who are once and for all tired of and finished with their own empty words that do not have the power of life or the ability to germinate into something good. The Lord needs servants who are prepared to carry out His commandments at all times.

If it were only up to the Lord, He would have had His perfect will and way with all of us quickly, but He lets us make the choice and appeals to our free will. Among other things, the choice is between a short or an eternal suffering, a short or an eternal reproach, a short or an eternal humiliation, etc.

I want to address a powerful exhortation to every young person who is aware of God’s drawing on his heart: Never break out of the fence—which is your conscience—by which you know you are surrounded. It can mean a very hard way back again, and a great loss for eternity. Enter into the sufferings and the reproach of Christ as quickly as possible, because the Lord has a rich and great life’s work waiting for you. The works are prepared in the lowly and insignificant places, and you must have God’s light to see them. But when you take up these works and execute them they will be transformed into precious jewels, which will be to your gain in the resurrection. Be watchful, so that earthly interests do not seize your heart and become more important than your heavenly calling.