There have been many moments in my ministry in which I have been called to do something or venture somewhere that I’m not entirely inclined to do with much gusto. There have been people and places that I knew would be challenges to face and endure, but despite my reservations, the call persists.
Often, we are misled, either intentionally or unintentionally, to think that God is only going to call us to places where we desire or feel personally inspired to go. Where we came up with this concept, I’ll never know, but it persists in the churches of today. If we look at the Bible, there are numerous passages and stories of persons being called to act in the ministry of the Lord in ways in which they truly didn’t want to do so! Just off the top of my head, here are a few examples....
Moses didn’t want to be the one to approach Pharaoh about letting the Israelite people go, and Aaron didn’t want to say no to the Israelite people when they demanded an idol. Esther didn’t want to disturb the King on behalf of the Jews, and Sarah didn’t think she could bear children. Timothy was hesitant to evangelize because of his age, Peter denied Jesus in the face of persecution, and the Apostle Paul started as a persecutor of the church and didn’t want to accept the Gospel in the first place until Jesus appeared personally to him! Even Jesus himself expressed hesitancy and anxiety towards his calling. In the Gospel of Matthew, on the night before his crucifixion, Jesus prayed to God a very interesting prayer. The scripture states, “he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” We tend to focus on that last part as significant, “not as I will, but as you will,” which it is indeed! But what (in my opinion) is even more significant is the hesitation in the earlier passage of the prayer where Jesus expresses hesitation!
