Qualifying His Called

“God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supplies.” – Hudson Taylor

Have you ever been given a task that seemed impossible? Yet, when you planned it out and took it step by step, you made it. When we look back on those times we see the accomplishment and we cheer.

Those times are sweet to us. Yet, when it comes to what God calls us to, we see the word impossible and that is it.

How many of us has God told us what to do with our lives? Were you reading your Bible and praying over what to do with your life and then God revealed it to you?

What is the path God put you on? What task did He show you?

For many of us, we feel like we were with a map and asking God for directions. Instead, God told us to look up from the map and He pointed. His outstretched arm lead our gaze to a high mountain in the distance. “There,” He calmly whispers to us. “You want me to go there?” We quickly rebuttal due to our inexperience and other excuses we give.

God has called us each to do something. He points our gaze to a mountain top and says, “This is where you are to go.” When we look at the journey it will entail, we are in awe of what God wants us to do, but we are shamed by our own inadequacies for the journey.

Yet, God is still pointing you to that destination. His calling stands. Yet, we let fear cloud our mind and we stand there. What am I to do? I can’t do that. Does God know my limitations?

Do you know your excuses?

I Am Not Like…

So often when God calls us to do something, we say I am not like the other person we know who is a “great Christian” in our minds doing that task. We look around and tell God, “You must have the wrong person. Choose him or her.”

We value ourselves before God based on the comparison we do of others. Moses did the same. Exodus 3-4:16 tells the account of Moses and the Burning Bush. He was the son of Pharaoh. He had murdered and fled. He knew the atrocities that were taking place. And, God called him. He pointed to a mountain top (literally) and said, “Go there.” Moses saw himself in comparison to everyone else. He knew who he was. Yet, God chose him.

Paul considered himself the chief of sinners – the worst of all sinners (I Timothy 1:12-15). Yet, God chose Paul from that life to a new life in Christ. Paul was not Peter or John or Andrew. He had persecuted and murdered Christians in order to stop them from preaching the Gospel. Yet, God chose him.

God chose you. He made you specifically for a purpose on this earth (Psalm 139:13-16). He knew you before you were born and He knows your past. Did your past stop God from redeeming you through His Son? Will your past stop God from using you? If you answered yes, then your salvation and purpose on earth is based on you and not found in the new life God bestowed on you through Christ.

Yes, you are not like that other person. But, that is why God wants to use you for His calling on your life.

I Am Not Equipped to…

“Thank you God for giving me this calling, but I can’t. I do not have the experience or the correct gifts for this.” You may not say it out loud, but we all think it. When God reveals where He wants us to go, we see how inadequately we are for the journey ahead. We see every flaw. We see every sin struggle.

Moses said the same to God. God called Moses to speak in front of Pharaoh to deliver the entire nation of Israel out of Egypt. “I have never been eloquent – either in the past or recently or since you have been speaking to your servant – because my mouth and my tongue are sluggish (Exodus 4:10).”

You may not have the looks, the smarts, the personality, the physical abilities, yet God called you. He designed you the way you are for this purpose.

How God responds to Moses is how He responds to us, “Who placed a mouth on humans? Who makes a person mute or deaf, seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord (Exodus 4:11).”

He gave you the abilities you have. You may have to exercise those abilities and make them stronger. But, God still called you. Your lack of something is not an excuse God is buying for you not to follow Him.

But, This Means I Will Be Alone…

Whatever God calls us to the Bible promises will not be easy and there will be suffering. It means we will be alone. As humans, we crave interaction and hate the solitude that our decisions may create as people no longer want to socialize with us.

Isaiah had to come to terms with this. In Isaiah 6 he sees the Lord in all His holiness. Isaiah breaks down, confesses his sin, and is called to speak for the Lord. Yet, God tells Isaiah that he will turn away people. He will be alone. Yet, God called him.

He knows what is going to happen when you follow Him. He knows. Yet, He still called you.

Focus on the One Who Called You

These are examples of the excuses we give to God and keep giving to God as we see where He is leading us. Excuse after excuse after excuse is what we think, because we know we cannot do it.

GREAT! You cannot do it. That is why he called you. He called you because God knew you could not ever do it on your own.

When we try to do God’s calling in our way, we will fail. We try to play “politics” in churches, we try to strategize and plan, we try and try and try. Sure, it may get us somewhere and a title. But, is that God’s way? He called us because we could not do it own our own. Stop playing games and trying to kiss-up to people to get where you think God wants you. It is not God’s way. God will supply everything you need to follow Him. It will not be the easy path, but it is God’s path.

God has called you and He will get you where He wants you. Look at the end of the story of Moses and Isaiah. Moses lead the people out of Egypt, just how God told him to do. Isaiah followed God’s command to speak exactly how God commissioned him to do. Moses never entered the Promised Land. According to church tradition, Isaiah was sawn in half. Yet, God honors them for us to learn from them in His Word.

It is God who called you. He is your Creator, Savior, Justifier, Redeemer, and Sovereign Lord. Do you think He does not know what He is doing? Look at His works in the past, and in your life.

God does not call the qualified. God qualifies His called.

It is His journey for us. We need to take our eyes off the physical limits, the people, and excuses and walk by faith (II Corinthians 5:7).

The mountain top that God is pointing you to is far and high and the climb is steep and dangerous. But, He is the One who created that mountain. He knows the way.

Gladys Alyward lived in England in the 1930’s. She had a burden for China. She knew God called her to China. Yet, no mission agency would let her go. They saw her as unqualified. Aylward decided God’s calling was more important than man’s opinion of her. So, she took a job as a maid; saving every penny to buy a train ticket to China. Alone, she travelled across Europe and Asia to go where God called her. She said, “If God has called you to China or any other place and you are sure in your own heart, let nothing deter you. Remember, it is God who has called you and it is the same as when he called Moses or Samuel.”

Have you heard God’s calling on your life? What is the mountain top He is pointing to? What excuses have you been giving?

There can be no excuses when God is the one doing the work through us. It is not our job to qualify ourselves. God will qualify us. Our job is to follow Him.

Are you ready for the first step? No, you’re not. But, God is.