Are You Really Ready To Serve - No Matter What Or Where Or To Whom?

My Utmost For His Highest

God called to him….And he said, "Here I am." —Exodus 3:4

{CHAMBERS} “When God speaks, many of us are like people in a fog, and we give no answer. Moses’ reply to God revealed that he knew where he was and that he was ready. Readiness means having a right relationship to God and having the knowledge of where we are. We are so busy telling God where we would like to go. Yet the man or woman who is ready for God and His work is the one who receives the prize when the summons comes. […] Readiness for God means that we are prepared to do the smallest thing or the largest thing— it makes no difference. It means we have no choice in what we want to do, but that whatever God’s plans may be, we are there and ready. […] Jesus Christ expects to do with us just as His Father did with Him. He can put us wherever He wants, in pleasant duties or in menial ones, because our union with Him is the same as His union with the Father. “…that they may be one just as We are one…” (John 17:22). […] A ready person never needs to get ready— he is ready. Think of the time we waste trying to get ready once God has called!”

{ELGIN}  Matthew 25:1-13 is the parable of the 10 virgins – 5 were ready and 5 were not. My focus here is on readiness and preparation.  Are you ready for the moment when Jesus shows up?  Are you ready to go with Him, wherever that might lead?  Is it OK if your plans are upset and what you hoped would happen doesn’t and what you hoped wouldn’t happen, does?  Is it OK if God has a purpose and mission for you that makes you uncomfortable and requires trust in Him requiring you to act on faith and not your own devices?  Is It? I hope so because that is the life that God has for you.  That is not to say that you cannot choose another way .. you can .. you have a free will .. even though your eternal security has been bought with the blood of the lamb … you can still say “no .. I won’t go!”  Proverbs 16:9 says that men make plans in their hearts, but God orders their steps.  Are you willing to submit to that order?  It will test whether you are truly submitted to the will of God or merely fascinated with the idea of being submitted to the will of God.  We can say “Wherever He leads I’ll go, I’ll follow my Christ who loves me so … “ Yet when the time comes we say “I shall not be moved!”  I’m not ready … I must take care of things that God apparently has forgotten about .. or perhaps … those people make me feel uncomfortable .. God knows I don’t want to be around them … I will wait for another opportunity … by the way .. most likely that opportunity will never come … but that may be OK with you … it is with many of us.

Look, here is the bottom line to our Christian life.  If we are to be conformed to the image of Jesus .. and we are … then we are going to experience unpleasant things and be around people who makes us uncomfortable … it’s the sick who need a physician … the lost who need the hear the Gospel.

Luke 18:9-14  “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

There are none righteous, no not one. (Romans 3:10) If you think of yourself as righteous, please don’t confuse the righteousness of Jesus as being your own.  We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

Who do you Identify with in the parable … the tax collector may seem like the acceptable “Christian” answer … but what does your life reveal?  You may find that you need to repent.  Friend, get ready for God to come calling … no matter what He calls you to do … He is the potter and you are the clay …. You’re not certain you will it’s God?  That is another devotion for another time.