Isaiah 43:1 But now this is what the Lord says – he who created you, Jacob, he who formed you, Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”

As a believer you have been redeemed. Jacob is a representation of one who was transformed by his encounters with God. Every believer is put through the process of transformation to the degree that he/she is willing to yield to the Lord. Your aim is to get to the point where, when faced with challenges, you can say:  “Lord, not my will, but yours.”

This is serious business because it is not natural. Society conditions us to think: I can do anything I want, be what I want to be and nobody can stop me. Well, that is true on some level if “self-actualization” is the goal. However, once you have been summoned by God by name, that script is only good for the trash.

John the Baptist was sent by God to say: “I am the voice of one calling in the desert, “Make straight the way for the Lord.” (John 1:23). He was preparing the hearts and minds of the people of his day for the coming of Jesus. After Jesus came and was baptized by John in the Jordan river, John’s disciples came to him one day to ask him whether he was aware that Jesus was now baptizing  too and everyone was going to him. John reminded them that as he had made plain from the outset, he was not the Christ and now that Christ had come, his joy was complete. In summary he declared: “He must become greater, I must become less.” (John 3:30). Fulfilling his mission had been his supreme privilege. Are you willing to be so identified with God’s agenda that you are content to set aside some cherished ambition that God may set you on a new path for his glory?