01/16/2025
This morning, I was awakened to the fact that I do not make the decision regarding how I will serve the Lord, no, He makes that determination. It is so tempting for us to get out of bed, say our prayers, and then, over breakfast, say cheerfully to ourselves "Let’s see, how will I serve God today!" What we should be doing is asking Him how we can do this, and then listening for His voice as Isaiah did.
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.”
Isaiah 6:8 KJV
Oswald Chambers leads us further an understanding of this as he writes...
"As long as I consider my personal temperament and think about what I am fitted for, I shall never hear the call of God. But when I am brought into relationship with God, I am in the condition Isaiah was in." - Oswald Chambers
Yes, if we were left to our own devices none of the hard things would get accomplished because we can only see those tasks that we are capable of doing alone. However, when God leads us He sees those things that are most needed for the kingdom and gives us His strength, wisdom, and humility in accomplishing them.
“And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work:”
2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV
Billy Graham was one man, but when he heard the voice of God and answered His call, he was led to speak to the world and its leaders for the kingdom of God. Great things of God aren't accomplished by great men. God raises up lowly men from their inherent weaknesses and gives them His strength to accomplish those great things that He would have them do.
Walking down a street in the small town of Finley, Tennessee, a young Lawson Hardwick heard God's voice, and when he said "yes" to God's call that day, he never dreamed that the Lord would use him in the building of Christ Church in Nashville Tennessee. He could not possibly have seen the many hundreds of thousands of lives he would deliver God's Word to as he walked and spoke with God between the rain showers in a town whose population was a minuscule 220 people. Nothing is impossible nor improbable in the hands of God.
Then there is this daily devotional email that arose from the chance(?) meeting and subsequent text messages between two Godly men who simply read the same devotional book. Now this has become a calling that touches countless lives in many countries around the world each morning. Two unlikely men; an aging white corporate manager in Nashville, Tennessee, and a young black account executive who lived in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a friendship in the Lord, and became a calling to me, a calling that by many accounts would seem accidental, but carried with it the earmark of God. With no advertising or announcements of any kind God uses my obedience each morning to reach out to the world by simply writing and posting a message He provides for people to stumble(?) across. He is amazing indeed. I wasn’t seeking a calling, Isaiah wasn’t seeking the call he received, and Moses certainly wasn’t seeking a call as he tended sheep on a distant hillside with blood on his hands. No, God just chose each of them for a task that no man would have ever selected them to perform.
The point I am making is this… don’t fret and lose sleep over trying to determine what your call should be, or when you might receive a calling from the Lord, just make yourself available, and be willing to obey Him when at last He speaks… even in the smallest of things. By obeying God, you might be busily doing what appears to be an insignificant task for Him and wake up one day to find the scales removed from your eyes and see that what you have been doing has been far more than you ever thought it was. On that day you will fall to your knees and praise God. On that day your soul will cry out in joy, and you will be thrilled beyond all expectation. Are you listening?
Prayer:
Father, thank you for using me as you do. Thank you for asking me to do things that seem so routine and mundane. Thank you for giving me a small voice in a raging storm that reaches out to touch the world in ways I could never imagine. Thank you, Lord, for sending me on a journey for you that I wouldn’t have chosen for myself. Father, let me hear your voice again today, and once I hear it, give me the courage to answer, and the faith to realize that all things are possible through you. Lord, on the day you called Moses he doubted because of his human weakness, but you made provision for those weaknesses and led him in your strength to accomplish great things in your name. Dear Lord, lead me today in those things, large or small, that you desire for me to accomplish; use me as an agent of your will in even the most unlikely or insignificant chores of your kingdom. Whether you want me to wash the feet of your children or lead a people from Egypt, all things done in answer to your call are righteous, holy, and of great consequence. Hear my voice Oh Lord as I answer yours, saying as Isaiah did… "Send me." Holy, Holy, Holy are you my God who chooses the most unlikely of your children to do amazing things in your name. Holy are you who can take jars of water and turn them into the finest wine, a small stone and slay a giant with it, a single bedside prayer and turn it into a worldwide ministry, or a reluctant obedience and use it to lead your people out of bondage. Great are you whose will is significant despite what the world thinks. You sent your Son Jesus to establish a new covenant with man and brought him into the world only to be placed in a manger, then to suffer like none other, and finally to die at the hands of those who detested Him. But in the end when your will had reached its fruition, you raised Him from the dead and sat Him beside you on your throne. We obey and worship you Abba and praise your name for every small task that you ask us to accomplish, and for every detestable job that the world looks upon as insignificant or demeaning but you use for your glory. In all things you ask of us we find your blessings, and in every storm a reason to praise you! Use us Father, and never find us unwilling to obey you, or to do your will. Lead each of us now and always. Call us boldly, and in unawares, to honor and glorify you.
Amen!
Rich Forbes