Crazy isn’t it?
I’ve been reading the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan and below is my observation from the section I’ve read today. I thought this was a great place to start dialogue or writing back on here.
Jeremiah 1:4-5, “The Word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.’”
God knew me before He made me. Again, God knew you and me before we existed.
God has been with me from the very start. Before I knew Him, before anything. It also says that God then knew what I would do before I was born too! You might just think this is written to Jeremiah, but Eph 2:10 tells us that we are created to do good works. God setup and prepared good things for us to do long before we existed. Sure I’ve heard all this before, but stop and think about how crazy it really is; that the God of the universe knew each of us before we existed and that HE prepared God thinks for us to do. I know that I have past by some of these good things before and I’m sure you have too. For me, one of the reasons I don’t do them, is because I think I won’t do a good job or that the job really should be done by someone else. Firstly, these good things are prepared for each of us and if God tells me to do it, it means it was created for me, not someone else. Secondly, we don’t need to be scared of failing. This is the same problem Jeremiah had and God told him, “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you.” It goes on to say that God touches his mouth and gives him the words he needs. Remember that God prepared these good things and that He will also guide us to do them as He wants. It is HIS plan not ours. Now that is crazy.
It’s such a simple truth, yet I know I fail at it.
The toughest question that has come from this section of the book so far….
The greatest good on this earth is God. God’s one goal for us is Himself. The best things in life are gifts from the One who loves us (God), but we need to ask ourselves if we are in love with God or just His stuff? Do I love the things He provides me with, the feeling He gives me when I succeed at a good work He gave me or do I earnestly love God Himself? I’ll be wrestling with that for the next while. What about you?
Wow, great post, great topic. It is amazing if we trust and are just willing God lets us get involved in some seriously cool stuff right away.
It came clear to me just lately that I have mostly been in love with what I get out of my relationship with God. At first this upset me but now I am learning how to trust and seek to be involved in Gods ultimate will, to be willing to participate in his kingdom work and the other STUFF is just becoming pail in comparison as I trust God enough to love HIM. Best thing about Christ is he is waiting and as soon as we realize HE is worthy of the love, and it isn’t about the stuff, he takes the regrets and guilt away (no condemnation in Christ Jesus).