Peace For TodaySýnishorn

Equipped for the Task at Hand

Elizabeth was born a slave. At the age of eleven, she was taken from her family and sent to a plantation far away. Utterly grief-stricken, she wept constantly and even stopped eating. One night she grew so weak that she was sure she would die. She hardly knew how to pray, but as she cried out to God, a figure cloaked in a brilliant white garment appeared before her. And God placed His call on the most unlikely of servants in pre–Civil War America: a young slave girl.

Elizabeth became a powerful evangelist who preached against the evils of slavery to both black and white congregations. On paper, she was terribly ill-equipped for the task: she had no education; she was a woman in a man’s world; and she was black during a time when people of color had no voice. Of course she met doubt and resistance everywhere she went.

But she knew where to go to be equipped for the task to which her Lord had called her: Elizabeth took her needs to Jesus.*

This truth could have helped Israel’s first king before he was ever crowned. When Saul learned about God’s plan for him, he realized the calling was too big: foreign enemies pressed in on Israel’s borders; tribes were scheming and jealous; and people had crazy high expectations for their nation’s very first king. So when the time for his coronation arrived and the announcement rang, the trumpets blasted, and . . . no Saul.

So they started looking for the king, and they found him—but only after the Lord told them, “He is hiding among the baggage” (1 Samuel 10:22).

Saul had considered the job description, sized up his own character, and found himself not up to the task.

Saul didn’t know that when that happens—when we find ourselves at the end of our own wisdom, courage, and strength—we have only one option: we must lay our inadequacies before the throne of God and allow Him to do His work through us.

When we do, we experience the peace that enables us to crawl out of hiding and into God’s purpose for our lives.

We serve God well when, in our weakness, we turn to Him for wisdom, courage, and strength.

* Herb Boyd, Autobiography of a People (New York: Anchor Books, 2000), 44–46.