September 23 Daily Devotional

Bible Reading:

Jeremiah 1:1-10

¹The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:
²To whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.
³It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
⁴Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
⁵Before 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.
⁶Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
⁷But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
⁸Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.
⁹Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
¹⁰See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Devotional:

Our task is not that of Jeremiah. Yet sometimes, as we look at parenthood, we feel that it is too much for us. 'Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child' (1:6). One day our oldest daughter said in jest, but surely out of a heart of real apprehension, 'When our children get into their teens we are going to ship them down to you.'

The task of parenthood comes upon us suddenly, despite the nine months of warning and anticipation. As we look at that little being, a real person whose responsibility has now become ours, all the courses in family living and child psychology, and all the books on raising children, suddenly become inadequate.

Have you known parents who feared their children? Have you known parents who gave up family prayers because their son objected? Or parents who could not refuse something they could not really afford because of temper tantrums that greeted them? Have you known parents who all unawares were taken in by schools of psychology which denied the basic concepts of God's Word? Have you known parents who read only the parts of God's Word which speak of love, skimming over those which speak of discipline? It takes real courage to be a parent.

What does God say to Jeremiah? 'Whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces ... ' (1:7,8). Parents need courage from God. We are to follow His directions for child-rearing and leave the rest in His hands. His words must be in our mouth. The faces of sulkiness, of pleading, of tears, of rebellion are not to cause us to fear. Our strength is in the Lord!