Rejecting Membership in the Jeremiah Club

Ever feel deficient?  Ever say to yourself, “I don’t have what it takes?” Do your personal defects dominate your attention?  Well, it looks like you’re a member of the Jeremiah Club. 

The Lord announced to Jeremiah, “I appointed you as a prophet to the nations,” Jeremiah 1:5.  Immediately, Jeremiah responded, “I do not know how to speak; I am only a child,” Jeremiah 1:6. Awareness of personal deficiencies overwhelmed Jeremiah’s thoughts.  “I just don’t measure up to the task.” Now notice God’s response to Jeremiah: “Do not say, ‘I am only a child.’  ‘Do not be afraid,'” Jeremiah 1:7. God invited Jeremiah to turn his attention away from human deficiencies toward divine proficiency!  Meditating on personal deficiencies proves we are members of the Jeremiah Club.  We feel we just don’t measure up to life’s demands.

Want to reject membership in the Jeremiah Club?  Acquiring greater skill, more money, increased ability or better health never enables you to escape the Jeremiah Club.  We can only free ourselves from the Jeremiah Club by turning our attention away from human deficiencies toward God’s proficiency.  When you give yourself to the Lord he robes in divine proficiency.  Then you move forward in life through him.  What he is counts; what you are not means nothing.  You become confident in his proficiency and less and less aware of human deficiencies.  You move forward in life in spite of human failings.  You advance even though there is much to pull you backward.  You progress even when dozens of road blocks fill your path.  You move on through the present regardless of past unpleasantness.

God is everything.  Confidence in him equips us to do anything.  Truly, “[you] can do all things through Christ who strengthens [you],” Philippians 4:13.