Consecrated and Set Apart

This past week has been a hard one for me....but I am trusting in God. Last Thursday my family and I departed Maryland on a trip to take my daughter to St. Louis, where she will be attending school this year. She is going to a non-conventional college called The Ministry Academy which is part of the St. Louis Dream Center. While attending The Ministry Academy she will not only participate in classes, but she will have the opportunity to be a part of some of the ministries of the Dream Center and work as an intern. This is an amazing opportunity that she has been presented with to go deeper into the things of God and to learn more of how He wants her to serve Him in ministry. Though I knew all of that, and even believed it...I was apprehensive having Meghan leave home. I discovered that my apprehension was not because I did not understand where she was going, or what she would be doing there. My apprehension was simply coming from not being able to let go, not being able to let my child go out into the world. In that I realized that if I was apprehensive, that I was not trusting in God and in His plan for her.
After, seeing the Dream Center and being exposed to some of the things they do for God's people I developed a peace that I had not had before concerning the situation. As, I have reflected on the situation since I have been home, God has reminded me of the things He has been teaching me and revealing to me. I realized He was not only teaching me these things to apply to my life, but to also apply them to Meg's life.
God brought me to Ephesians chapter 1 recently, through a blog post I had read. This chapter spoke volumes into my spirit about how we are each chosen, and picked for a specific purpose by God. I have an amplified Bible that has devotions every couple of pages and there is a devotion on the opposite page of Ephesians chapter 1, entitled "You Have Been Chosen". This article spoke to me, because it talked about not only being chosen, but that God chose each of us despite our faults and weaknesses. Rejection, acceptance, and reproach are big things that God has helped me work through over the years. I realized that I needed to start to share the things that God has taught me so, that others may learn from my testimony. I cannot sit and receive and not give anything back out from the Holy Spirit that lives in me. We as believers are not called to make a collection of tidbits of wisdom and knowledge, and then not do anything with that exhortation. We have to step out and share those pieces that God reveals to us with others so that they may grow too!
"Even as [in His love] He chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love. For He foreordained us (destined us, planned in love for us) to be adopted (revealed) as his own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will [because it pleased Him and was His kind intent]- [So that we might be] to the praise and commendation of His glorious grace (favor and mercy) which He so freely bestowed on us in the Beloved." Ephesians 1:4-6 (Amplified)
I could quote the whole chapter, because there is some good meat and truth here that we need to take to heart. I do want to share verse 13, because it ties it all together. "In Him you also who have heard the Word of Truth, the glad tidings (Gospel) of your salvation, and have believed in and adhered to and relied on Him, were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit. " Ephesians 1:13 (Amplified) Listen to me, you are saved, you believe, you rely on Him...and you have been stamped with the "long-promised" Holy Spirit. Receive it!!! This is where holding your head up high in Him comes from; you my dear one have been foreordained and consecrated. He chose you!!!
How does this all tie in to my recent experience with Meg? Go with me to Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew [and] approved of you [as My chosen instrument], and before you were born I separated and set you apart, consecrating you; [and] I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." In, February I had the opportunity to travel to Haiti to participate in medical clinics. While there God revealed to me this incredible fear that I had of letting Him down. After I returned home, I continued to process what God was showing me and He lead me to this verse in Jeremiah. On the opposite page of verse 5 in my Bible is a devotion entitled "You Are Chosen". It talks about how even though we are not perfect that God chooses us. It also talks about Jeremiah's fear, and how God tells Jeremiah to not be afraid of being accepted.
I shared about my experience in Haiti and what God had showed me about my my fear of failure at church shortly after I returned home. Afterwards I received a word of exhortation from someone, and one of the things she shared with me was that God had revealed to her that I not only had a fear of man, but a terror of being rejected by God. I treasure this word, and I often go back to the words she had penned in purple on a piece of notebook paper. I realized that my fear of sending Meg out into the world was also apart of this terror I had of letting God down.
Yesterday, God brought me back around full-circle to Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go [and in keeping with his individual gift, or bent], and when he is old he will not depart form it." (Amplified) When, I read that I was reminded of a study I had done a few years ago. I had written two words in Hebrew in the margin of my Bible. One of the words chanak means to dedicate, and a root of the word chanukkah means consecration. The dictionary defines consecration as being set apart for a specific purpose. I realized that this was what God was trying to tell me... that not only was I set apart, but that so is Meg! And, that I need to trust in that consecration. He knows what purpose He has set her apart for, and I need to trust in Him! How freeing that realization has been, and how awesome our God is that he brought me through those steps so that I can pass the knowledge onto my children, and also onto others. So, my dear one please do not ever forget you are consecrated and set apart by God for a Holy purpose, that only you can perform!