The Requirement

In the very first words of the book of Jeremiah, we hear the Word of the Lord being spoken to a very young and surely frightened Jeremiah, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations."  (Jeremiah 1:4-5)  Like a lot of others such as Moses and Jonah, Jeremiah was not eager to do the Lord's bidding.  I remember my own moment of being called to preach as a moment of great reluctance.  What I sensed in my spirit that night in the Alamo Methodist parsonage was not something I wanted to do.  

That spirit of reluctance and fear may be more common than we think.  One of the reasons is that when God calls us, He often calls us beyond our reach.  What He asks us to do seems like something we are not equipped to do, something which generates anxiety, and something which causes us to want to run and hide.  When we begin to realize that whatever it is that God is calling us to do is beyond our reach, it is not an indicator that God has chosen the wrong person, but an indicator that He is calling us to a ministry which will require us to depend on Him to get it done. 

When people are involved in a response to the call of God, one of the worst things which can happen is for them to come to a place where they are comfortable.  Comfortable means "I can do this."  It means "I am adequate, I need no one to get it done."  What God calls us to be about does not fit into a teaspoon, nor is it something which is manageable with human hands or extraordinary intellect.  What God calls us to be about is always going to be something which requires the exercise of constant faith.  If it seems otherwise, it is likely we have gotten off course.