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“So correct me, Lord, but please be gentle. Do not correct me in anger, for I would die.” Jeremiah 10:24
None of us like to be corrected. I think there’s two reasons for that. What is pride. Let’s face it, none of us like to be wrong.
Another reason we don’t like correction can be linked to the person doing the correcting. If we trust the person doing the correcting in love, then we realize that what they are doing is for our good and our benefit.
It’s far easier to take the correction when it’s done in love. Notice I didn’t say it is EASY to take that correction because correction of any kind can be difficult , even painful.
But when we know it’s for our best and the person doing the correct thing loves us it makes it EASIER.
In our verse today, the prophet Jeremiah is realizing his sin as well as the sin of his people. He is well aware of the fact that God loves him. He is well aware of God‘s power to be able to do anything. He is also aware of God’s wrath. That’s why he pleads for correction, not punishment. Correction is done in love. Punishment is done in anger. Correction is done for our benefit. Punishment is done for revenge.
God corrects, or disciplines, those he loves because he wants us to be better, to be stronger. Our job is to ask his for discipline and accept his action, knowing that he loves us and only wants our best.
““I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”” Jeremiah 1:5
Have you ever had an idea for a project? You did all the planning, bought the materials and put it together only to find that it didn’t work out exactly the way you had hoped. In fact, maybe it was so far away from what your idea was that it wasn’t even useful?
I admire people who can put a project together in their mind and then have it come out exactly the way they had hoped.
That’s exactly what happens to the prophet Jeremiah. God calls him to be his messenger. God calls him for a purpose. And Jeremiah‘s words to the nation of Israel prove that God’s project worked out just exactly as he had planned.
The same is true for us. The Psalmist tells us that every day of our lives are planned by God. He sees us in our mothers womb and knows exactly how he wants us to turn out.
So don’t lose heart. You may be in a period of your life right now where it seems like nothing is going right. You may even be feeling like a total failure because of mistakes you’ve made in the past.
God has a purpose for you. He can take the mistakes of your past and help you learn from them so that they become stepping stones to a bright future.
None of us are here by chance. Each of us has a God planned purpose. All we need to do is allow him to take control of our lives and show us the path that he has for us. In God’s eyes you are exactly as he had hoped.
And remember, as someone once said, “God don’t make no junk!”
Mike Fisk & Built with Grace 