Blog 2:

Ready vs. Willing: Are We Ever Really Ready?

January 22, 2016

Last night I had a dream I've had a couple of times. In this dream I'm about to board a plane, but when I get to the final gate, I realize I don't have my passport and I don't even know where my luggage is, and on top of that, I realize my passport is in my carry-on that has been checked in by mistake.

When I go to the stewardess I start to panic because I can't figure out how I'm going to get on the plane, nor do I know where the plane is heading to. I start crying in the dream, and when I woke up I realized I was panicking and feeling extremely stressed.

So during my devotions this morning I asked God, "What was that dream all about?" And I felt Him say, "Will you ever feel ready for the call I have placed on you?"

And that got me thinking - Are we ever really ready?

Are we ever ready or fully prepared or abled for the call God has for our lives; for the journey He wants to take us on? Or is what He wants simply a person who is WILLING to say "yes" and let Him take us, in His strength and not by our own, to places we never dreamed we would go?

Nothing can fully prepare us for what God calls us to do. All that He wants is for us to say, "Here I am, send me."

This morning I was readying from Oswald Chamber's book My Utmost for His Highest and I want to share the devotion, since it fits perfectly with the challenge God gave me of readiness vs. willingness.

CALLED BY GOD

"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?' Then I said, 'Here am I! Send me'" (Isaiah 6:8)

God did not direct His call to Isaiah - Isaiah overheard God saying, "…who will go for Us?" The call of God is not just for a select few but for everyone. Whether I hear God's call or not depends on the condition of my ears, and exactly what I hear depends upon my spiritual attitude. "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Matthew 22:14). That is, few prove that they are the chosen ones. The chosen ones are those who have come into a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and have had their spiritual condition changed and their ears opened. Then they hear "the voice of the Lord" continually asking, "…who will go for Us?" However, God doesn't single out someone and say, "Now, you go." He did not force His will on Isaiah. Isaiah was in the presence of God, and he overheard the call. His response, performed in complete freedom, could only be to say, "Here am I! Sent me."

Remove the thought from your mind of expecting God to come to force you or to plead with you. When our Lord called His disciples, He did it without irresistible pressure from the outside. The quiet, yet passionate, insistence of His "Follow Me" was spoken to men whose every sense was receptive (Matthew 4:19). If we will allow the Holy Spirit to bring us face to face with God, we too will hear what Isaiah heard - "the voice of the Lord." In perfect freedom we too will say, "Here am I! Send me."

-Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest