Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I do not know how to speak, for I am only a youth."
But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, 'I am only a youth'; for to all to whom I send you, you shall go, and whatever I command you, you shall speak.
Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, declares the LORD."
Jeremiah 1:6-8
With a call and an encouragement, any objections Jeremiah had to serving as God's prophet were silenced. God was bigger than the fears of a reluctant young man. Everything that God told Jeremiah in calling him God confirmed in Jeremiah by using him. But it clearly would be God Who would do it. Jeremiah himself was barely out of boyhood and filled with self-conscious fears. In this way a timid youth would prophesy to a wayward nation so that God would get all the attention.
When God wants to use you, never put up your own analysis of yourself as an objection. The reality is that God knows you better than you know yourself! He knew you before you even had an awareness of your own capabilities. God let Jeremiah know this by reminding him that God had already appointed him to the prophetic task before he was even born. God knew what He was getting with Jeremiah before the prophet was even conceived! (Jeremiah 1:4-5)
God always knows you better than you know yourself and well before you think you know yourself. That is why "self-knowledge" is not nearly as vital as "God-knowledge". Honoring God and obeying Him is more important than one dimensional self-analysis. This truth flies in the face of psychologized secularism, but this is a biblical reality that should not be ignored. Thank God that He did not pamper Jeremiah with self-esteem platitudes and motivational posters. Instead, God taught him courageous faith and called him to do what seemed impossible to him.
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