Don't worry, God will get someone else to do what he called you to do...

 

Read Jonah 2

Have you ever had this conversation with other Christians?  I thought God wanted me to do something but I didn’t do it.

That’s ok.  I’m sure God used somebody else.  There’s a logic to it.  God can do all things.  If not through you, then why not someone else?

Let’s examine that and go beyond the standard sophomoric level it most often receives.

God knew you before you were born.  He formed you.  You are unique. 

You are called according to his purpose.

So, can just anyone do what God made you to do?  Of course, God may equip whomever he wants.  We can neither restrain nor constrain God.

But he is the Potter.  We are the clay.  Who are we to deny the person that God made us to be?

Who are we to deny the purpose that God gave us?

Saul of Tarsus felt he was called by God.  He was sure that included persecuting these newfangled rebels who followed the way of Jesus.  Saul persecuted them with a passion.  He was sure that was the purpose to which God had called him.

Meeting the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus was what psychologists might call a Significant Emotional Event.  Actually, it was much more than that, but the world tries to put everything into a box that it can understand.

Through Saul’s blindness and some help from other believers—most of whom were very skeptical of him at first—Saul learned the purpose to which God had truly called him. 

Saul took some time in the wilderness—Arabia to discern this calling he had yet to understand.  This might have taken up to 3 years.  So 3 days in the belly of a fish might have seemed like a crash course to Saul, whom you know best by his Greek name, Paul.

Think to Balaam and the 7 messages that God gave him to give Balak.  The prophet was inclined to do what God wanted, but needed some rudder from an angel armed with a sword and the voice of his own donkey.

Balaam delivered God’s messages.

God chose Moses to go to Egypt and deliver his people from bondage.  Moses didn’t want to go.  Suppose this happens.  What if…

But God had chosen Moses.

Jeremiah told God that he was too young to be his prophet.  God told Jeremiah that he knew him better than he knew himself.

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

    before you were born I set you apart;

    I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.

We must never forget that God is sovereign.  When he appoints us to something—we will label it a calling—he has already factored in our short comings and made his sovereign decision.

Jonah was to go to Nineveh and preach repentance to them.  He didn’t want to go.  God could have said, “OK, next candidate.”

He didn’t.  These were not tryouts.  God had already made his selection.  It was Jonah.

When Jonah ran away, God could have just written him off.  He didn’t.  He sent a storm.

When Jonah was thrown overboard, God could have just said that’s judgment day come early for you.  He didn’t.  He provided a great fish to swallow Jonah.

In the belly of that fish Jonah was reconciled to his purpose.  He confessed he had gone astray.  He affirmed that God heard his prayers, even from the depths of the ocean.

And the fish vomited Jonah on the shore.  You don’t get a lot of happy ending that involve fish vomit, but today you did.  Actually, it’s not the end of the story.

Jonah would finally do what he was purposed to do.  He had resolved in his mind to do this.  He would proclaim the Lord’s salvation.

His heart might have needed some more time in the belly of the fish. Keep reading.

So for us, consider my initial provocation.  If you know that God has called you to something and your thinking is that if I don’t do it, then someone else will, are you asking for a time of blindness, a talking donkey, or a 3-day/3-night all-inclusive stay in the belly of a fish?

I challenge you to a time of discernment before you write off what you think might just be God’s calling.  It could be to ordained ministry, service as an elder, service coordinating cleanup after F4, delivering gospels, straightening hymnals in their holders, beginning a prayer group or Bible study, or a dozen other things that you think you might just be called to do.

If you know with certainty that God has called you to this, just do it.

If you are not sure, spend time in prayer and discernment before you just say, God will get someone else.

This is different than saying, well nobody else is going to do this.  I am talking about when God has called you.  Remember, his sheep know his voice.

Jonah ran away.  Today, we prefer convenient excuses.  Running away takes too much energy. Has God called you to something that you have shrugged off capriciously?

God doesn’t make mistakes.  You were designed with his purposes in mind.  Don’t run away and don’t wait until you are praying in the belly of a fish to realize that God is serious about who he made for his purposes.

To run away or simply shrug off his calling saying he will just get someone else denies God’s sovereignty.  It makes you a rebel and in league with the enemy.

How can we say as for me and my house we serve the Lord and be in league with the enemy?  Obey God’s callings.  He chose you.  He factored in your height, weight, intelligence or lack thereof, your looks, and your compliance with Taco Tuesday and Throwback Thursday regulations.  He still chose you.

We should regard running away from God and just shrugging off his callings saying he will just get someone else as sin.  God will forgive us our sin if we confess to him, but how long will we keep on sinning.

What shall we say then?  Shall we go on sinning so that grace may abound even more?  No!  By no means! That is not who we are now.

Answer the callings that God has placed on your life.

Amen.