Answering God's Callنموونە

Strength in Your Calling

Listen to the audio file to hear the complete devotional with accompanying worship music, and find a written version below: 

In this devotional, we’re going to learn that we are never disqualified from our callings because of our personal limitations! Instead, we can depend on God to receive strength for our calling. 

To recap what “calling” refers to- Christians are called to go and make disciples, reflecting Christ and his love to the world. And God places us all in unique roles to carry out this calling, such as spouse, parent, teacher, employee or leader.

Within the Exodus narrative, God has just given Moses his calling to lead the Israelite people out of their bondage in Egypt. Moses, however, is not feeling very confident. He is worried that his inability to communicate well will prevent him from being a good leader. God responds to Moses’s worry, “I know your limitations. I’m the one who made you!” There is no weakness Moses could bring up that might catch God off guard or cause him to move on from Moses. No issue with Moses’s speech could ever get in the way of God’s plan. 

God says, “I will be with your mouth and teach you what you are to say.” God is communicating to Moses that the success of the mission is not going to be determined by Moses’s personal gifts but by God’s power. 

Haven’t we all felt like Moses in this situation? We don’t think we’re strong enough, smart enough or special enough to do what God has called us to. We get consumed with our weaknesses. We get hung up on our limitations. We tell God we’re not enough. We think maybe he chose the wrong person for the task. But God is greater than our limitations! God steps in where we are lacking. 

Our limitations should lead us to God and his power, and there is a reason we can trust God to come through. God the Son came down from heaven and made himself weak and dependent: he took on all the limitations and weaknesses that come with being human. While he had the power to do whatever he wanted, Jesus surrendered his strength, allowing Roman soldiers to nail him to a cross. Jesus surrendered his power to the point of death so that he could give his power to those who believe in and are united to him. This God loved you so much that he made himself weak so that you could be strong. Depend on him for strength to carry out your calling. Trust him. He will come through.