The devotion of your youth

At times, we are all guilty of making commitments that we struggle to fulfil. This can occur in many different areas of life. We make a new commitment with a burst of enthusiasm, but easily lose momentum as the months and years pass. This is not a new problem. It has plagued the generations of mankind throughout history. The Lord spoke to the nation of Israel, ‘I remember concerning you the devotion of your youth’. Jer 2:2. He remembered their devotion and commitment to Him when they first came out of Egypt and followed Him in the wilderness. This was their youth as a nation. In the same way, the Lord remembers the commitments that we make, and particularly in our youth.

The Lord remembers our commitments and He compels us to fulfil them. This notion is supported by society in general, and most people will believe that commitments should be honoured. This will be true in relation to our home mortgages, business deals, workplace agreements, marriages, and indeed every area of life. Much of the energy of our civil legal system is focussed on ensuring that contracts are properly upheld. The struggle for most of us is not whether we should maintain our commitments. The challenge is actually doing it.

The Lord has a plan and purpose for every person, to give us a ‘future and hope’. Jer 29:11. However, this plan has little substance unless we commit ourselves to it. We must choose the Lord’s plan, and then resolve to fulfil it. This is how we find fulfilment in life, which is an interesting play on words. We are fulfilled when we fulfil our commitments to the Lord. This is the opposite of becoming empty because we have pursued emptiness. In the days of Jeremiah, the Israelites ‘walked after emptiness and became empty’. Jer 2:5.

Every generation will be faced with the challenge of fulfilling commitments. However, there is some evidence to suggest that Generation Y, or those who are roughly between 15 and 30 years old, has found a unique and worrying answer to the problem. In many situations, we avoid making commitments altogether! Our generation is considered to be ambitious and technologically savvy, but we struggle with the thought of being ‘locked down’. We like to maintain our freedom. For this reason, we tend to frequently change jobs and leave getting married and having children until much later in life than our parents. We are certainly less likely to go to church and make a life-long commitment to serve the Lord.

However, our youth is the time to make commitments. Most importantly, it is the time to commit ourselves to following the Lord. If we don’t make any commitments, we give the Lord nothing to ‘remember’. There will always be times when we struggle in life. But we want the Lord to remember the devotion of our youth, and continually call us back to our fundamental commitment to Him.

David Baker

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Feature Articles
August 2008

Keeping your heart

Bearing His reproach

The staff of bread

The harmony of life

Honouring fatherhood

Elders and Deacons

Showing Virtue in tragedy

Becoming a seeker

The Goodness of God

The devotion of your youth

Increase by labour