February 2018

Are You Up to the Task?

I do not think that I am alone in sometimes feeling overwhelmed by the challenge of being a Christian, and feeling that I do not measure up as an ambassador for Christ. I felt very keenly the challenge to enter ministry, but there are times when I wonder what I have really achieved.

The reality, of course, is that I have not achieved very much, but, God, working through me has accomplished what he planned to do through me.

When the Angel of the LORD came to Gideon, he said to him, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian” (Judges 6:14)

Gideon’s reply was predictable. “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s
house” (Judges 6:15)

The LORD said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man” (Judges 6:16, emphasis, mine).

Gideon would eventually learn that God was truly going to be with him. God had chosen him to accomplish some things, and God would be with Gideon to ensure that he was successful in all the tasks that he had been set.

I have come to learn, from this and other stories in scripture, that I just need to do the work that God has set for me. He will take care of the results.

I was not called to be successful; I was called to be faithful.

Paul, towards the end of his life, was able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8).

Are you up to the task? Of course you are.

Colin R. Vine