Are You Running

Are you the kind of person that runs to God when you are called to come out of your comfort zone or do you run the other way?  There have been times that I have straddled both sides of the fence, so to speak, sometimes jumping in with both feet and other times very reluctant to get involved.  In every one of our lives I think this may be the case at times because we are comfortable with doing some things that we are good at but not so with other circumstances and situations.

There are also other reasons that we may not want to be obedient to God right away when He calls us to minister; maybe because we lack compassion and love being prejudice about certain people or we are scared or we may feel we are not qualified or ready for the job or we think that we are just not worthy and it can’t possibly be done by us.  We know that God can use anyone He wants, so we feel that God should call someone else more qualified than we are and sometimes that will happen if we refuse, but who loses out in the end; we do.  We can either be faithful or we can make excuses for ourselves.  Remember this; God doesn’t always call the equipped but He always equips the ones He calls.

Remember Moses after the Lord spoke to him from the burning bush?  You would have thought he would be ready for anything the Lord wanted him to do, but what was his response even after the Lord said that He would be with Him?  Moses made up excuses for why God should send someone else, even after God had performed miracles in Moses’ presence turning Moses’ rod into a snake and back to a rod again and then causing Moses’ arm to be leprous and to be clean again.  Even seeing these two miracles and the Lord speaking to him about turning water into blood in the presence of Pharaoh and the people, this was Moses’ response in Exodus 3:10-17,

“Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’

So He said, ‘I will certainly be with you. And this shall be a sign to you that I have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.’

Then Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?’

And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ And He said, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’’ Moreover God said to Moses, ‘Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, and this is My memorial to all generations.’ Go and gather the elders of Israel together, and say to them, ‘The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared to me, saying, ‘I have surely visited you and seen what is done to you in Egypt; and I have said I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

Even though Moses had a real struggle with his self-image and obedience at the time, God still had compassion on him and still used him in a mighty way while also equipping Moses to be a leader.

I am thinking of another man that was asked to do something for the Lord and he ran in another direction, his name was Jonah.  Jonah deliberately ran from God, he was a man that was a prophet and he knew that God had called him to go to Nineveh to preach, to warn the people of the upcoming disaster that was going to take place because of their wickedness.  Jonah responded by running from the Lord and heading for Tarshish because he knew about the atrocities the Assyrians had committed and their wicked ways.  He hated them and he knew if they repented God would relent and not bring the disaster on them that He was going to so Jonah wanted them destroyed, having no love or compassion for any of them.  Then after ending up in a large fish’s belly for three days and three nights he came to his senses and repented and prayed to the Lord and the Lord heard him and had the fish vomit him up and Jonah did what the Lord told him to do. The Lord has His ways of getting people’s attention, but even going through what he did; Jonah was still reluctant because of his lack of love and compassion for the people.

What kind of person are you?  Do you follow the Lord’s callings on your life or do you think of all the excuses you can to not get involved?  Like I related to earlier, the Lord will not call you to do anything He knows you can’t do with His help.  If the Lord calls you, He will equip you also, so that you can bring glory to Him in whatever ministry He has called you to.  So let that be an encouragement to you and try your best to be obedient and faithful to His calling on your life.  Something to think about!  Have a super day and may the good Lord bless you and yours!!