Being formed and shaped by God

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart (Jeremiah 1:5).

In these words spoken to Jeremiah, God says that He had great plans for His prophet before the man was even born.  When the LORD says I formed you, we get the sense of a carpenter laying forms for a sidewalk.  When the concrete is poured, it is shaped by the forms.  And when God pours life into us, our days are formed by His grand design.

You’ve seen children play dress up.  They walk around in adult clothing, slacks and shirts and shoes which are far too big for them.  Have you ever found yourself in a situation that just didn’t seem to fit?  You didn’t have the background or skills that you needed.  Things moved faster than you felt comfortable with.  You had other plans that got shoved to the side.  Or maybe you got stuck doing something that you felt was beneath you. 

The thing to remember is this: God has a plan for you.  He is working tirelessly to grow you into your full potential.  But it takes time and effort.  Moses was put on earth to lead the Israelites out of captivity and speak God’s words to them, but it took forty years as a prince of Egypt and another forty years as a humble shepherd to prepare Moses for the job.   God chose David to be King of Israel, yet the young man went through many battles and hardships before he was ready to sit on the throne and had sufficient insight to honor God with beautiful psalms. 

Oswald Chambers wrote, “Every humiliation, everything that tries and vexes us, is God’s way of cutting a deeper channel in us through which the life of Christ can flow.” The Bible says that troubles produce patience. Patience produces character, and character produces hope. This hope will never disappoint us, because God has poured out his love to fill our hearts (Romans 5:3-5). Bonsai trees grow beautiful under the strict shaping of a gardener—imperfections are cut away.  Olympic gymnasts reach competitive readiness through rigorous coaching—flaws of any kind are targeted for elimination. The Lord has a design for each and every one of us.  It can be frustrating when we don’t know everything that plan entails.  And it might be disappointing to find out that our plans for achieving success don’t necessarily match up with what God has in mind.  But this we can be certain of: the LORD shapes us to be more like Jesus, the Son of God and pattern for our lives.