Are You Feeling Insecure? (3)

'The Lord...said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth.'' Jeremiah 1:9

The people God calls usually start out feeling ill-equipped and insecure. Indeed, if you jumped up and said, 'No problem, Lord, I can handle that,' He wouldn't call you at all. You say, 'But I've made so many mistakes.' Everybody falls; the winners are just the ones who get back up again. 'The Lord delights in a man's way, He makes his steps firm; though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand' (Psalms 37:23-24 NIV). When Jeremiah told God that he had neither the competence nor confidence needed to do the job, God said to him what He says to us: 1) You are not going in your own authority. '...You must go to everyone I send you to...' (Jeremiah 1:7 NIV). Who's sending you, sponsoring you and sustaining you? God! What more do you need? 2) The message is not yours. 'You must...say whatever I command you' (v. 7 NIV). Don't agonise, compromise, rationalise or apologise. Just say what God told you to say and He will do the rest: '...For I am watching to see that My word is fulfilled!' (v. 12 NIV). 3) When God touches you, you're qualified. 'Then the Lord reached out His hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put My words in your mouth'' (v. 9 NIV). Be yourself; you can't be anybody else! You're not who others say you are; you're who God says you are! So you can do what God says you can do. Just get in agreement with Him.