So, what’s the plan, get up and go to work for the next few decades, dependent on your age of course, make sure as much as possible that you have some sort of nest egg, some financial wherewithal to fall back on, and then start serving Christ fully, or at least as much as you are now plus a little, giving Him as much as your now frail and quickly deteriorating body can give.
Far too many who call Christ Lord do not serve Him as such, instead of stepping out in faith, they wait for that supposed calling from Him, these are the scales tipped toward common sense instead of faith. Family and friends would need to be left behind, the job is fairly secure, this is my hometown, any and every excuse, it is as if they are waiting for the Lord to put something in their mailbox, and then of course it would need to be certified and verifiable.
As best as my memory recalls, have you ever noticed how Moses never asked the Lord how He was going to do what He said he would accomplish through him in Egypt, excuses, so many in fact that “And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Moses, and he said, Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also, behold, he cometh forth to meet thee: and when he seeth thee, he will be glad in his heart.” (Exo. 4:14) Even if He were to give us a direct, straight to your face commandment of what we are to do, many would disobey, or at least complain and look for reasons not to.
If there is not a God-fearing, Christ-centered, Bible-believing church in your area, why do you stay there? If there is no continuing fellowship with born-again believers where you now reside, why are you there? The so-called secure job, family, friends, known location, all these and much more are the things of the world we place before Christ, while still attempting to make ourselves believe that we are glorifying God, that we are profitable to the kingdom. Far too many wait for some call that will never come instead of stepping out in faith. “Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.” (Heb. 10:38)
But that faith has been transferred to self-reliance, reliance on our ability to “make a living,” instead of faith in His provisions. Honestly, if you have a roof over your head, a best as you can hope for secure job, family and friends surrounding you, why would you just give all that up. There is the trap, many believers seem to think that because they have all these things that they are pleasing in the eyes of the Lord, but many who are in these positions cannot give you five memory verses from the Scriptures, they cannot give you the names of any they have led to the cross, they can show no fruits of the spirit. They may have a nearly perfect church attendance record, but they cannot expound on what the sermon was last week. They have heard no call, they have received nothing in the post, no e-mail arrived, and so they simply continue on the path of self, saying to themselves they are indeed serving.
Most of these individuals believe in their hearts that when they reach their mid to late sixties, they will begin full time service to the Lord, they will have finances in secure places, the house will be paid for, everything is financially well in the world, and the world, at least as much as it used to be, has not near the strong call on them it once had, they are free to serve. These can expect no call from the Lord, save perhaps the final one, if they truly knew Him as Savior, when He calls them home, too few if any rewards, and no treasure house.
These are the gods we have placed before our Lord; these are the idols we have set up, selfish desires, supposed securities, common sense instead of faith. A known, as best as we can rely upon it, peace and security, instead of possible trials and travail, ease instead of possible pain and persecutions, and we call it faith.
If the best you have got to show for the proof of your salvation is an hour or so on Sunday morning, an occasional mid-week appearance at the church, and a glance once in a while at the Word of God, you may have a serious problem on your hands. If you believe that the greatest gifts that a man can receive of the Lord in this life is the peace and security of the world, that a place to live and a reasonable amount of financial wherewithal is the sure sign of His grace and mercy, then it is time to reevaluate your supposed service to Him. But I could be mistaken, why don’t you go check the mailbox, you never know, perhaps there’s an e-mail signed with a capital G waiting in your inbox. But if there is, are you going to give everything up and answer it?
