Written by: Nina Bueno
“I said I would follow Jesus anywhere He calls me, but I could never do that. I wouldn’t be good at it, and it’s too scary anyway.”
Have you ever said something similar? I have. There are many things I’ve claimed I would never do. Yet it has always seemed like God has had some way of calling me to do just that!
I said I’d never go on a mission trip; it just wasn’t my thing. Well, I’ve ended up going on two ERC preaching mission trips. Praying in public made me uncomfortable, but now I’m leading a week of prayer. I said I’d never go canvassing, but suddenly, God hit me with the call to canvass this summer, which I have accepted.
Looking back, I don’t know how I did some of those things, especially after never wanting to do them. Even now, I still don’t know how I’ll be able to do some of them. I want to follow God in everything He calls me to do, but I also do not want to go outside of my comfort zone. Sometimes, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it.
Recently, God revealed in my devotions that He calls us to give up everything to follow Him, including our limits on what we are willing to do. Matthew 16.24 says, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.’”
He often calls us out of our comfort zone to show us what He truly wants us to do. He also calls us to show us His full potential in our lives.
In Ephesians 1:18-21, Paul says, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
This is the truth about God’s callings; this is the help God gives us to follow Him in everything. We have on our side the POWER that God used to raise Christ from the dead!
It’s not just in Ephesians that we see this truth. In Philippians 4:13, Paul says that even when he is going through trials, “I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” In Matthew 19:26, Jesus says, “With man, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
If we have all of these promises of power, then what excuse do we have for not following God and doing His will in all situations? This has convicted me when I am out of my comfort zone, feeling I cannot do what God calls me to do but knowing that I can’t deliberately disobey Him.
As I have been trying to take God at His word, these truths have also been comforting. Paul says this power and inheritance are not something of the future; they are already ours. As Christians with the inheritance of Christ, we are not looking for help; we already have help.
The power of Christ’s resurrection is ours to guide us through trials. It is stronger than any person or any spiritual force of evil. Christ’s name is above all names, and simply by taking His name, as Christians, we acknowledge that His power is with us; we call on it in any situation we may face.
This week, as we contemplate the life and death of Christ and approach the day commemorating His resurrection, let us remember what is ours. God does not push us outside of our comfort zone just to leave us there. He calls us because of the blessings He has in store for us out there. If we stay within our self-made limits and never venture out into the scary, anxiety-inducing, vulnerable, humbling world, then we will never understand the true power of our God. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?…No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35, 37-39).
