God's gifts and calling

God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable (Rom 11:29b). He sees the worth and great potential in us and never forget the purposes for our lives. We, on the other hand, see our weaknesses and our failings. Often we lack vision for our own life, and gradually lose our sense of the true identity we have in Christ.

Though God clearly has good thoughts and good plans for us, we do not see them in the hustle and scuffle of life. We lose the sense of a planned future, and then we lose hope. Yet God tells us in His Word “I know the plans I have for you, . . . plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jer 29:11). In that God says “I know” He is saying He remembers, and will always know. His knowing reaches back in time to our conception, and forward in time to the end of our lives. In fact, our very identity is known by God and kept safe in Christ, untouchable by our enemy and unchangeable by our unbelief.

The potential to walk in our identity is hindered only by listening to lies about ourselves. We have an enemy that jumps at the opportunity to make us feel stupid and useless; satan. He is the accuser of the brethren (Rev 12:10). Satan will capitalize on our weakness and erase our victories in our minds, if we listen to his thoughts. When we think we no longer have a purpose or a calling in God, it is because of his great ability to convince us to look at what we lack within us, and in our lives.

When Jesus was taken to the wilderness and there fasted 40 days, his enemy tempted him (Lk 4:1-13). After all, what kind of great ministry could happen in the wilderness . . . alone . . . without anyone to minister to? The circumstances were bleak. Satan tempted Jesus to make something big out of Himself (though He already was the greatest man to walk the earth) by worshipping him, satan. This temptation is common and most often occurs during a wilderness experience in our lives. Satan presents it as filling in the lack God has allowed in our lives, urging us to make something happen.

Satan also tries to get us to prove God is there, caring about us. He tempted Jesus to throw Himself off a high pinnacle, and to trust the angels to spare Him from harm. Though we are not taken supernaturally to such a place to prove God is in our lives, we may feel the need to put ourselves in harm’s way to see if God is really there, caring about what happens to us. At these times we will make decisions that lack common sense and true wisdom.

And of course, satan wanted to make God look bad . . . neglecting to feed His own Son in the wilderness. So he told Jesus to turn the stones into bread if indeed He was the Son of God. This same temptation comes to us also. Where there is need, whether personal or with another, we are tempted to take control to “prove” our identity in God. In all 3 temptations satan tried to pressure Jesus to take matters into His own hands.

Jesus passed on all 3 temptations because He believed in God’s nature as stated in the scriptures. That is why Jesus answered satan using God’s very own Words. Jesus didn’t feel the need to prove Himself, or His heavenly Father. Though things looked rough out there in the wilderness, Jesus knew that His Father wouldn’t forget Him, nor His calling. We have the same choice as Jesus did. We can believe that God will not forget us, and works towards our good, or we can believe our enemy’s lies that He has cast us aside as worthless, or soon will. The choice before us is, do we believe what God tells us in His Word, or will we be convinced by our enemy that God has no use or purpose for us? If we chose the first option, we become a child of God. If we chose the second option, we forfeit our identity to satan’s lies. Today, chose wisely, for God’s word is true. Amen.