This morning we continue our series entitled, “Refined Focus”, with an emphasis on “Focusing on God’s Finished Work”. Yesterday we started looking at the call of Jeremiah with a message entitled, “Called Before You Were Born.” Today we will continue to flow in this vein..
The Lord said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” (Jer 1:5 KJV).
So what does this mean to you today? A few things.
1. God knew you before you knew Him. God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee.”
a) The day you acknowledged Jesus as Lord is the day you began your journey with God. However, that is NOT the day God began His journey with you. That began before you were born.
b) The day you are Born-Again and you begin walking with God is exciting and exhilarating. Everything feels new to you. You are new person. The Bible calls you a “new creation in Christ Jesus”. It says, “all things are new” (2 Cor 5:17). It all feels like your life is starting all over again, with a fresh start. While all of this is true from your perspective, from God’s perspective His relationship with you started before your mother met your father. Grasping this reality is important, because it helps you understand the enormity of God’s power and the profundity of His commitment to you.
2. God made plans for you before you ever started making plans for yourself. God said to Jeremiah, “Before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee.”
a) Solomon said, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.” (Prov 19:21).
b) You can and should make plans for your life, but you must do so with the understanding that God already made plans for you before you were born. So if you want your plans to stand the test of time, you should do all you can to ensure your plans are in-line with the plans God made for you before the world began.
c) Success in life comes when you align with what God assigned you to do from the foundations of the world.
3. You should seek to be defined by nothing other than God’s divine assignment for your life. God said to Jeremiah, “I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
a) Your “what” and “how” in life should be defined by your “who”. Once you know who God called you to be, the discovery of your true identity will drive all the activity for your life. See, your activity does not define your identity, it’s the other way around. Once you discover your identity, it will drive your activity.
b) Your parents may have given birth to you, but they did not design you. Since they did not design you, they cannot define you. You can’t even define yourself, because you did not bring yourself into this world. The only one who can define you is the one who designed you before the world began!
c) When you allow yourself to be defined by the one by which you were designed, you get to live an amazing life. Not by your power, but actually by God’s grace.
Closing Confession: Father, this is a season of refined focus for me. I bring my life into focus in 2016. Spending time meditating and medicating on Your tireless dedication to me, and the fact that You made plans for me before the world began, is helping me to reevaluate everything I do. My life can no longer be about me, my plans or my desires. My life has to be (and from this point on I declare that it WILL BE), all about You and the plans You made for me before I was born. So Father, I die to live. I discover to deploy into. I align with what You have assigned me to do. Instead of working so hard to make a life for myself, I learn to REST in Your Finished Work! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
