Pages from a Preacher's Prayer Book (8)

God’s call here (Part B)

But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!’ (Rom. 10: 14,15).

Last time I said there is one truth that I have held onto from my earliest ministry. But let me complete the whole sentence: GOD HAS CALLED ME HERE FOR HIS GLORY.

It is not just that God called me to serve him, but that my journey has led me to this place and this people. Perhaps I might wish to be elsewhere. Others seem to enjoy ministry in easier places and I know tugs of envy and discontentment. But I must recollect how this place is God’s place for me. Here God calls me to bloom where I am planted. He wants my feet to be beautiful because they have gone to his right place.

Too often I am preoccupied with my own levels of satisfaction. I hunger for more success. I resent the cost and humbling, the low response and just being taken for granted. Sometimes, I even want to give up and move on. But God challenges me about taking my eyes off his glory as I seek my own. Sometimes I behave as though the call is for my sake and not for his. “ Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true” (John 7:18).

I must come back to basics. God does not call me to be successful and brilliant but to be his person where he wants me. To have beautiful feet. To recognize that these people are his people whom I have to love and serve now.

Prayer: Lord, help me remember that you called me here for your glory. Give me desire and love to serve you. Let me live for your glory. Let me overflow with love and conviction in the face of difficulties and disappointments. To labor and not to look for any reward save that of doing your will. Amen.