Your Future Awaits
Called but Unqualified?
When you think about the calling God has placed on your heart does it conjure up the words, “Who am I?” Do your insecurities, regret about your past, or your unfavorable comparison to how you measure up to those around you take precedence over what God is calling you to pursue?
You are not alone. Moses felt the very same way. To him, Egypt was a place he fled. It represented an unfavorable past which was a place of bondage for God’s people. It was where his heart to stop injustice resulted in an impulsive lethal attack on an Egyptian. Moses had become a fugitive, trading his place in the palace for a hideaway among hills.
His past had a great amount of power over his present but when God told him to return to Egypt, confront Pharaoh and lead His people to freedom, Moses’ insecurities began to take hold of his future as well. How did Moses respond to this call? He highlighted his unworthiness and raised multiple objections:
“But why me? What makes you think that I could ever go to Pharaoh and lead the children of Israel out of Egypt? (Exodus 3:11 MSG)
“They won’t listen to a word I say. They’re going to say, God? Appear to him? Hardly!” (Exodus 4:1 MSG)
“Master please, I don’t talk well. I’ve never been good with words, neither before nor after you spoke to me. I stutter and stammer. He said, Oh, Master, please! Send somebody else!” (Exodus 4:12-13 MSG)
In today’s society we want to swoop in and give Moses an encouraging pep talk. We want to remind him of how great he is, point out his strengths, tell him he can do this task, stroke his ego and let him know that we will be there to cheer him on and will also be there to celebrate his eventual victory.
God does not take this same approach to Moses' rebutal. Three different times God responds by saying:
“I will be right there with you.” (Exodus 3:12, 4:12, 4:15)
God made us. He knows our short-comings. However, our insecurities about our short-comings do not come from God; they come from our past experiences and are reinforced over time.
A couple of years ago I felt God telling me to prepare to speak at a Christian women’s event. Until this point, I had not been handed a microphone and a platform. I did not understand this prompting. There were several other women more qualified than I, more experienced, with prettier pasts and better connections. In my lack of understanding I prepared my sermon, all the while wrestling with the thought, “Who am I?”
My prediction was that I would be a last-minute fill in for the first-choice speaker. Something unexpected would occur and my prepared message would swoop in and save the day. I will be a secretly prepared substitute, I thought to myself.
Therefore, imagine my surprise when well in advance I received a call from a church pastor asking me to speak at their Easter women’s event. Ending the call, I marveled at the words just spoken.
“God, I knew you were calling me to speak, but I never thought it would happen like this,” I said out loud.
“You are never my plan B,” God replied. “When I choose you, you are my first choice every single time.”
Could this be true? Growing up, I was never anyone’s first choice. I was a face in the crowd, a kind person to get along with. I contributed to the vast number of people but was never chosen to be placed in the spotlight.
The reality is, we are not called just to be another person in a crowd or be a lesser version of someone else. When God calls you, you are always His first pick. He created you for this very time in history to fulfill a unique calling in a way that only you can. You are not made to be a fill in for when the preferred kingdom players are unavailable.
As a child of God, you are an important kingdom player and if God calls you to a task, He will equip you to fulfill it. God specializes in using seemingly ordinary people to display His glory. We need to look no further than Jesus' twelve disciples to emphasize this point. It is God who calls and equips so no man can boast.
If you find yourself wrestling with insecurities, ask God to give you the courage to step out in faith and take your next step toward what He has commissioned you to do. Remind yourself that regardless of your perceived shortcomings, God will be right there with you taking care of all the details. After all, just like the message in the book of Ester 4:14, Perhaps you were created for just a time as this!
(Photo Credit: Artem Maltsev)