2008 resolutions

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."

"Ah, Sovereign LORD," I said, "I do not know how to speak; I am only a child."

But the LORD said to me, "Do not say, `I am only a child.' You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you," declares the LORD.

Then the LORD reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, "Now, I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:4-10).

We’re about a month into the new year as of today, so I’d like to ask you—how are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? Have you lost 10 pounds yet? Has it been 26 days since you picked up a cigarette? Has your family noticed that you have been doing a better job of keeping your temper under control and being patient? Have you been successful in changing your life?

I suspect that many people in the world are not having much success in sticking to their New Year’s resolutions by this point. I’m guessing that some of you reading this didn’t even make a resolution on New Year’s Eve, because you have failed to keep resolutions in past years and you were afraid that you wouldn’t be able to stick with a new commitment in 2008 either. It is always difficult to change things, and the hardest thing to change of all is yourself.

It is because we have such a hard time changing ourselves that so many ‘self-help’ books are sold. There are books on how to lose weight, how to manage money, how to improve relationships, how to build a successful career and many, many more. Books like these are constantly being written and they always sell well—but have you ever wondered why there are so many? Obviously, it is because the majority of the time these books do not succeed in bringing about an improved life. If an author truly had the ultimate solution to weight loss, and every overweight person bought and used that book, sales would drop off rapidly for any future dieting books because everyone would now be at his or her ideal weight! The reason that dieting books are continually being written is because they only result in lasting success for a few people—the rest go back to the bookstore and put their money down for the next new book to offer hope for permanent weight loss. It is the same for any other kind of self-help book as well.

There are two reasons why self-help books don’t work—the author and the reader. Self-help books don’t work, first of all, because the people who write them are not perfect. No doctor is perfect—if a doctor never made an error in judgment, he wouldn’t need to carry malpractice insurance. The same applies to lawyers, psychologists, and any other kind of professional who makes a living by helping others. No professional, regardless of how well trained he or she is, can anticipate every potential problem; the professionals who designed the Titanic were certain that their ship design was unsinkable. Every professional can make a bad decision after a sleepless night, or while sick, or during a time of heavy stress. Every human being experiences lapses of judgment. How can we be confident, then, that any self-help book will really give us sound advice on every page?

The other reason that self-help books fail is because of the people who read them. One problem is attention span. Without scrolling up, do you remember how I titled this message? You just read it a couple of minutes ago. A study of children in school has suggested that during an academic year the average student only remembers 10% of what he or she is taught in the classroom. How effective can a 200-page self-help book be, if we only remember 20 pages of it?

Another problem is that we humans do not like to change. We get comfortable with our lives the way they are—changing causes us to become uncomfortable, sometimes fearful. I’ve known women who dated men who were abusive, yet they kept going out with these same sorts of guys even though other types of men were also interested in them. I’ve known people who hated their jobs, yet wouldn’t look at changing their careers. Why? I think it is because of an old saying that goes "better the devil you know than the devil you don’t." People often resist change because they fear that as bad as things are now, changing will only make things worse. How effective can a self-help book be if the reader does not believe that the suffering of dieting and exercise will be outweighed by the benefits of a lighter, stronger body?

Our attempts to improve ourselves so often fail because of imperfection. The experts give imperfect advice, and we neither fully understand nor whole-heartedly embrace that advice because of our imperfections. And so our lives continue on much as before, while we look for another solution to the problems that trouble us. But in Jeremiah we are offered an alternative. Our Old Testament lesson shows us a different way to improve our lives.

Jeremiah can very easily represent each of us. God comes to him and tells Jeremiah that he needs to make a change in his life—Jeremiah is going to have a new career as God’s representative to the Israelites. Now a career change is a scary thing. A career change will require new skills, new goals and priorities, a new daily routine, and meeting new people. Becoming a prophet of God will turn Jeremiah’s life upside down. If he is to be successful, Jeremiah will need to make a lot of changes—and frankly, the thought of it all terrifies him. Immediately, Jeremiah tries to tell God that he is not ready for such an important change in his life—this man, who is at least 20 years old, says I am only a child.

Under ordinary circumstances, Jeremiah would be justified in being nervous. How many of you reading this have received ‘job training’ that left you terribly unprepared for carrying out your new duties? How many of you have leafed through an employee handbook and didn’t understand half of what you read? How many of you have struggled with a new job because you weren’t quick enough, strong enough, or bright enough? On a new job most of us are initially incapable of doing things as well as the boss expects, and this tempts us to give up and look for another way to earn money.

But when God brings change into our lives, things are different. God does not give us imperfect advice or unclear instructions on how He wants things done. God is the source of all wisdom, and He has used the 66 books of the Bible to show us how to live harmoniously with Him and with each other. In 2 Timothy 3:16 Paul writes, All Scripture comes out of God’s mouth and is useful for teaching, warning, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. When praying to His heavenly Father, Jesus said: Your word is truth (John 17:17). Through the influence of the Holy Spirit, God made sure that the Bible was a mistake-free book that we may turn to confidently for wisdom.

But the Bible is not a self-help book; the Bible is instead a God helps book. God knows that we are imperfect; He knows that we have trouble paying attention, trouble understanding, trouble remembering, trouble staying the course over the long haul. We promise to change our bad habits and we fail. God knows that because of our imperfections, we let ourselves down, we let our loved ones down, and we inevitably let our Lord down. God knows that even with a perfect Bible in our hands, we cannot free ourselves of our imperfections, no matter how hard we try.

So God sent His beloved Son into our world, dressed in the body of a human. Jesus walked this earth to do what we cannot—He lived His life perfectly according to God’s expectations, and when He suffered and died on the cross He offered His perfect life in exchange for our imperfect lives. Jesus offers eternal life in heaven in exchange for eternal condemnation in hell. Jesus lived and died for us; in exchange, He only asks in return for our loyalty to Him alone.

When we are loyal to Jesus, our lives can be changed—changed quite dramatically! In the hands of an unbeliever, the Bible is just a book of words; but in the hands of a Christian, the Bible becomes God’s instrument of power in our lives. The Holy Spirit works through the power of God’s word, and when we read and believe in the word of God the Spirit works powerfully in us. Paul says it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Philippians 2:13). This is why the Bible cannot be called a self-help book—the Bible is not a tool that we use to change our lives, it is the tool that God uses to change our lives. The Good News of the Bible is that it is not ultimately up to us to save ourselves; God knows that if salvation were up to us, we would inevitable fail and wind up in hell. Instead, we have the wonderful assurance that it is God who saves us through the atoning work of Jesus on the cross. It is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God--not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-10).

We see this in the calling of Jeremiah as God’s prophet. First God tells him, Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart. God reminds Jeremiah that He creates each and every person individually; God decides what each of our talents and strengths will be. Paul tells us, we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Jeremiah did not understand that from the moment of conception the Lord had given him the skills needed to do God’s assigned work. And this is true of you and me as well. We need never fear that God will ask us to do something we are incapable of, because He has already made us capable.

God also told Jeremiah, Do not be afraid…for I am with you. The author of a self-help book is not available to you if you have questions. A psychologist will not come to your house and help you deal with an urgent problem. But God tells Jeremiah not to be afraid because He will be with him. God tells you not to be afraid of going through changes in service to Him, because our Lord will also be with you every step of the way. Certainly, changing your pattern of living as a follower of Christ can sometimes be difficult, but remember what Jesus promised those who embraced a new life with Him: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Finally God told Jeremiah, I have put my words in your mouth. By doing this, God was equipping Jeremiah for his job as God’s spokesman. Clearly, we too can expect our Lord to reach out and give us whatever we need to serve Him. But let us not think that these specific words were for Jeremiah alone. When God says I have put my words in your mouth, this applies to us as well. Of all the tasks that our Lord gives us, none is more important than the privilege of telling another person about Jesus’ love for them. Parents are commanded to raise their children in the Lord (Deuteronomy 31:12). All Christians have been given the command go and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19).

Of course, when we hear these words it is easy to become intimidated. We want to respond as Moses did when God told him to go speak to the Israelites held captive in Egypt: "O Lord, I have never been eloquent…I am slow of speech and tongue." But God responded to Moses, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say" (Exodus 4:10-12). Similarly, Jesus reassured His followers do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit (Mark 13:11). God makes it abundantly clear to Jeremiah and to us that when He gives us an opportunity to speak of Christ with others, we are to seize the moment with confidence that the Lord will be with us, helping us to say the right things.

Making changes in your life can be scary, but Paul tells us we died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? (Romans 6:2) Being a Christian calls for us to abandon old, self-centered ways and seek to adopt a lifestyle that serves God. Leaving behind the past can be just as hard as losing weight or changing jobs, but we have something far more effective than any self-help book—we have God, who promises to help us in living our lives according to His wisdom and who promises to forgive us for Jesus’ sake when we stumble and fall. May it be your ongoing resolution to live each day as a faithful follower of the Lord.