“Who called you?” The phrase rang through my heart and up through my ears as if it was an audible utterance from deep within my heart. I opened my eyes to look around briefly before going back to my prayers. “Who called you?” I heard it again. This time I knew He was awaiting my reply. “You, Lord. You called me.” I paused in silence for a moment before He replied, “Remember that!”
It was a Monday night and I was spending time in prayer at church and thinking about the plan of God. Just like anyone else, I’m no stranger to messing up at times, and I guess I was just spending more time than He wanted me to thinking about that. See, though I have known about the call of God on my life to be a minister from a very young age, I have struggled (at times) with feeling adequate enough to truly do what I felt in my heart He has called me to. I’ve witnessed many great men and women of God rise up and answer God’s call to pastor and seen them go on to great levels of success and yet I am 19 years into this and just now beginning to walk it out. Am I doing something wrong? Is it because I have messed up so many times? Am I crazy and just making up something? Is my ambition misplaced?
“Who called you?” That’s all He would say until I answered Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He Who calls you, Who also will do it.” In Romans 11:29 we read that, “the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.” And Hebrews 12:2 refers to Jesus as, “the Author and finisher of our faith.” These verses not only offer a lot of encouragement but they also make it clear that, no matter what, we can’t do it alone. We weren’t called to do God’s plan for our lives without Him! Isn’t that great news? I think it is! Because of this, I can put all of my confidence in Him completing the work that He begins in me! We don’t have to try to accomplish anything other than to serve Him! If we will just spend our time and energy loving Him, obeying Him, and seeking His way of doing things, we will fulfill His plan for our lives.
It is great to know that He never gives up on us. No matter where you are at in life, He hasn’t changed His mind about you. He still has a purpose and a plan for your life. You aren’t too old, you aren’t too young, and you haven’t done anything that He isn’t willing and ready to forgive you for. Does what you feel He has called you to do seem too big for you? Trust me, I know how that feels—I’m living it! And it is too big for me to fulfill! If we have dreams that we can fulfill in ourselves, they aren’t even worth realizing anyway because they are already possible. It’s so much better to dream things that require faith in the God with Whom nothing is impossible! Just as the Master says in Mark 9:23, “nothing is impossible to him who believes!”
So get up and go! God has a plan for you that starts today! His plan for you has always been in place and it will never end! Just as you reach one goal in His plan for your life, He will expand your vision and your dream! Nothing is impossible with Him and nothing is impossible to him who believes! His gifting and calling on your life are not able to be changed, reversed, or recovered—they are final! He is faithful and He will do it! Look unto the Master who is the Author and finisher of your faith! Now is the time to go and do and see all that God will do! And in one years time you will look back and say, “Look what the Lord has done!”
David Steinberg, March 15, 2017