Excuses: I'm Too Young

Jeremiah 1:4–6 (KJV 1900)

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, ⁵ 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. ⁶ Then said I, Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

Many people offer to God every day the same excuse that Jeremiah did, I’m just a child. It is said that Jeremiah, at this time, was somewhere under the age of 25.  While he may have felt himself too young to do anything for the Lord, God already had a plan and purpose for His life. This reminds me of Paul’s advice to young Timothy in 1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth, but be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, impurity. There are many Christians who feel just like Jeremiah. They think they are too young to serve the Lord. Church is for the “old” people, and they say, when I get older, then I’ll start coming faithfully and serving God. You are never too young, or old, to serve God.

But many Christians give this same excuse, even though by human standards, they are not considered old. They may not physically be a child, but they feel as if they are one, spiritually. Many Christians use their lack of Christian experience as an excuse to not get involved. But here’s the catch – you never gain the experience you feel you need until you get involved. Many Christians have not taught a Sunday School class because they did not feel as if they knew enough of their Bible. Yet, a great way to learn your Bible is to study a Sunday School lesson all week before you teach it. This was how my church started my training after I received Jesus Christ as my Savior and surrendered my life to His will. I became the helper in the 4-5th grade boys Sunday School class. Every week, I studied their lessons and helped in the class when Sunday came around. Soon after, i was teaching about once a month. I learned more then because I had to study every week to be prepared for that class.

The strange thing is - many who use their lack of Bible knowledge as an excuse never actually do anything about it. They won’t read their Bible more, they won’t listen more attentively in the service, and they won’t even volunteer as a helper in a class to get the experience. 

If God has placed an opportunity in front of you, realize this – God wouldn’t put you into that position unless He was going to equip you with the tools needed to succeed. God will not set you up to fail.

When you site your lack of Christian knowledge and experience as a reason why you cannot serve God, you are really telling God that He can’t get it done. It is one thing for us to know our weaknesses, but it is quit something else for us to say that our weaknesses prevent God from getting anything done.

Instead of being humble, we are being very prideful.

God has heard the excuse of time.

eBook Review: Who Do You Think You Are

BOOK DESCRIPTION 

You are a saint ...You are blessed...You are saved ...You are afflicted ...You are heard.

Pastor Mark Driscoll answers the one question you need to ask: Who am I in Christ?

Being a Christian can be like driving in a foreign city. You try living on the straight and narrow but instead take a wrong turn onto the wide avenue of sin and temptation. In the process, you become discouraged and condemned, limping along in your faith—or giving up altogether.

But this isn’t the real Christian life. You can make a U-turn.

Pastor Mark Driscoll knows that underlying our struggles in life is the issue of our identity. “The fundamental problem we have in this world,” he says, “is that we don’t understand who we truly are—children of God made in his image—and define ourselves by any number of things other than Jesus. Only by knowing our false identity apart from Christ in comparison to our true identity in him can we finally deal with and overcome the issues in our lives.”

Who are you in Christ? Among other things:

You aren’t what’s been done to you but what Jesus has done for you. You aren’t what you do but what Jesus has done. What you do doesn’t determine who you are. Rather, who you are in Christ determines what you do. These are fundamental truths that Pastor Mark explores in depth throughout Who Do You Think You Are? Finding Your True Identity in Christ.

MY THOUGHTS: I found this to be a helpful book, based on Ephesians, on a subject that there doesn't seem a lot written about. This issue of who we identify with and in is important and should be understood more by the average Christian. Like any book outside of the Bible, you won't necessarily agree with every point the author makes, but the positive definitely outweighs the negative. The author is unapologetically Reformed, which I am not, but that did not take away from the over-arching truth this book proclaims.

While it is in no way written to be a practice commentary of Ephesians, it would be immensely helpful and useful to any Bible preacher or teacher doing a work through this book of the Bible. Even if you are not a teacher or preacher, this book will help you realize your true Identity in Christ.

DISCLAIMER:
This book was given to me free in exchange for a review. This did not change nor effect my thoughts, comments, or review.