Bible League: Living His Word The LORD's message came to me:"Before I made you in your mother's womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I chose you for a special work. I chose you to be a prophet to the nations." On the basis of our verses for today we can see that God knows His people before they are born and chooses each one of them for a special work, a special calling unique to them. God is a God who plans things out in advance and we figure into those plans. It would be a mistake to believe that our verses for today apply only to Jeremiah and that only he was known by God before he was born and only he had a special work to do. As if God did not know the rest of us before we were born and did not have any plans for us. Our special calling, obviously, is not the same as Jeremiah's and it may not be anything anywhere near as important as Jeremiah's, but it is a calling nonetheless. Since it is God who calls us for special works, we can expect to have within us the spiritual gifts and resources necessary to fulfill the calling. God is at work in all of us to do everything He has called us to do (I Corinthians 12:5-7). Indeed, one way that we can identify our calling is to become aware of the spiritual resources we have available to us. Further, since it is God who calls us, we can expect to have a burden for whatever it is He wants us to do. For the Apostle Paul, for example, it was preaching the gospel to those who are not Jews (Romans 15:15-16). Another way we can identify our calling is to become aware of the burden God has placed on our hearts. Finally, since it is God who calls us, we can expect that He will have worked out our preparation for the special work. Parental influence, educational preparation, job and life experience, and any number of other factors may all play their role in preparing us for the work. Becoming aware of the relevance of these factors is yet another way of identifying our calling. God knew each one of us and chose each one of us for a special work before we were born. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingExodus 16, 17, 18 Exodus 16 -- Manna, Quail and the Sabbath NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 17 -- Water from the Rock; the Defeat of the Amalekites NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Exodus 18 -- Jethro Visits and Counsels Moses NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Matthew 19:16-30 Matthew 19 -- Divorce; Jesus and the Little Children; the Rich Young Ruler NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion If I have sinned, what have I done to you,O watcher of all humanity? Why make me your target? Am I a burden to you? Insight Job referred to God as a watcher or observer of humanity. He was expressing the feeling that God seemed like an enemy to him—someone who mercilessly watched him squirm in his misery. We know that God does watch over everything that happens to us. Challenge We must never forget that he sees us with compassion, not merely with critical scrutiny. His eyes are eyes of love. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Luke 2:20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.What was the subject of their praise? They praised God for what they had heard--for the good tidings of great joy that a Saviour was born unto them. Let us copy them; let us also raise a song of thanksgiving that we have heard of Jesus and his salvation. They also praised God for what they had seen. There is the sweetest music--what we have experienced, what we have felt within, what we have made our own--"the things which we have made touching the King." It is not enough to hear about Jesus: mere hearing may tune the harp, but the fingers of living faith must create the music. If you have seen Jesus with the God-giving sight of faith, suffer no cobwebs to linger among the harp strings, but loud to the praise of sovereign grace, awake your psaltery and harp. One point for which they praised God was the agreement between what they had heard and what they had seen. Observe the last sentence--"As it was told unto them." Have you not found the gospel to be in yourselves just what the Bible said it would be? Jesus said he would give you rest--have you not enjoyed the sweetest peace in him? He said you should have joy, and comfort, and life through believing in him--have you not received all these? Are not his ways ways of pleasantness, and his paths paths of peace? Surely you can say with the queen of Sheba, "The half has not been told me." I have found Christ more sweet than his servants ever said he was. I looked upon his likeness as they painted it, but it was a mere daub compared with himself; for the King in his beauty outshines all imaginable loveliness. Surely what we have "seen" keeps pace with, nay, far exceeds, what we have "heard." Let us, then, glorify and praise God for a Saviour so precious, and so satisfying. Daily Light on the Daily Path Hebrews 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Isaiah 27:8 You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. Psalm 103:13 Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. • For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, • while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Hebrews 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. 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