Do you ever feel unworthy of the call God has placed upon your life and you start wondering if you should step back?
How many ways in our lives do we make sure we have a fall back plan in place? I will try this out, I will take this little risk as long as I know I can come back to this place of safety if it doesn't really work out. It is interesting to me the encouragement I have heard from some people along the way to have a vocational back up plan as a pastor. The church organization may not always be able to stand and you will need a plan to support you family when the time comes for us to be tent makers like Paul was. I have always thought there was some wisdom in this. And yet this doesn't seem to be the way Jesus works.
In Luke Chap 9 Jesus lays out some of the costs of discipleship to those who are interested in following him. One young man says he would like to follow Jesus and Jesus replies, "foxes have dens and birds have nests but I'm homeless man are you sure you want to follow me?" When Jesus then calls others to follow him one says, just let me bury my father first and the other I just need to say goodbye to my family. Jesus responses seem harsh, "Let the dead bury the dead...and...no one who puts their hand to the plow and then looks back is worthy of service in the kingdom."
The last statement hits me square between the eyes. I was planning on a career in counseling before God called me into the ministry. I have to tell you I have looked back from time to time wishing I had some of the financial comforts laying back there in psychology land. Does this make me unworthy to serve in the kingdom? Does having a career back up plan make us unworthy to serve in the kingdom? I think the point is we need to keep moving forward in our service to Christ no matter the cost or the discomfort. Jesus is our example of this in the very same chapter.
On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah come to visit with Jesus about his departure from the earth back to heaven. A little later in the chapter Jesus thinks of his leaving to go to heaven and sets his face and heart on getting to Jerusalem. What waits for him in Jerusalem? Torture, betrayal, and death. Yet his presses on in his service of the kingdom with his mind set on his return to heaven.
We have a similar goal to set our eyes on. Jesus is coming back again and he plans to take us with him. It will take living in this world a little longer holding on to the hope we have a little harder, but we will make it just as Jesus did.
The devil loves to whisper in my ear, you could be living a much more comfortable life right now and counseling is really great ministry. It is true that counseling is really great ministry and perhaps God will decide he wants me there in a different capacity then I have ever imagined. But serving the kingdom is not about comfort here in this world.
I am following a homeless man!
Jesus places a radical call upon our lives, but he doesn't ask us to do anything he didn't do first. I pray for the courage today to not look back, for the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to keep looking forward, and God to make me worthy of serving the kingdom.
May you also find the strength to keep looking forward today in the place Jesus has called you to serve, never looking back as the Holy Spirit makes you worthy of your service to the kingdom.
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