Editor's note: Enjoy this devotion from Ed Newton, author of Why Not You?
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Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt? — Moses, in Exodus 3:11
Like Moses at the burning bush, God may have called you to do something incredible, and you are asking the same question: “God, why me? I am not enough.”
Also like Moses, we often fail to recognize that God has prepared us for His calling long before we know what that calling is. The day that God makes it abundantly clear, you might be amazed, you might be caught off guard, and you might have a million questions. It might feel like it came out of left field. But not to God, who wants you to understand three things:
- Your upbringing has prepared you.
- Your experiences burden you for others.
- Your mistakes have not disqualified you.
You see, God has been laying the groundwork for the incredible ways He will one day use you. He arranged (or allowed) circumstances in your upbringing that would serve as guides and reference points for your purpose. He placed a burden on you for helping others with similar experiences in ways you could not imagine. And no matter what mistakes you have made along the way, these do not disqualify you from God’s calling on your life.
When you begin to understand how God has already prepared you and sees you, you will know that He has chosen you. The calling and purpose He has placed on your life was specifically made for you, and He will provide everything you need to accomplish it.
Your Upbringing Has Prepared You
You might be thinking, Pastor, you don’t know me. You don’t understand. There is no reason God would choose me to do anything of significance. And you might be right about the first part. I don’t know you. But I do know that the circumstances, events, trials, and tribulations you have faced in life have prepared you for what God wants to lead you to.
Looking back, the struggles you have endured might seem insignificant or unrelated to a bigger picture, but they all have a purpose in your life.
When you ask, “Why me?” God responds, I have prepared you for this exact calling because of X, Y, and Z that you have gone through. Because of how each circumstance changed your life, you are exactly the person to fulfill this calling. Why Not You?
Your Experiences Burden You for Others
Not only has God allowed or engineered circumstances in your past to prepare you for His call, but He has burdened you to use those experiences to help others facing similar struggles.
God uses life to shape and change you or to shape and change others. Growth does not happen in comfort. Though our human brains love to keep us comfortable, God will often allow or even design circumstances that remove us from our comfort zones and force us to grow. These circumstances can be wildly uncomfortable, but God knows that through the discomfort He is conforming us into the person He will one day use for a great calling.
At other times, it is not about us at all. God allows us to face problems so we can guide others through similar terrain. This can be difficult. We might question God. We don’t understand His purposes. But in these instances, He is looking forward to who we’ll help in the future. Your experiences will burden you for others, and it is your job not to waste them but to use them to help those God places in your life along the way.
Your Mistakes Do Not Disqualify You
Now, this might be the point when you say, “Hold up. I believe God is calling me to something significant. I know that my upbringing has prepared me for it, and I have a burden because of the experiences I have gone through. But you don’t understand. I have made some serious mistakes, ones I don’t think God can forgive. There is no way God wants to use me to do something incredible.”
Are you saying that today? Or maybe you have said it before. If so, I have good news for you:
Your mistakes do not disqualify you from God’s amazing call on your life.
All throughout the Bible you will find stories of broken people, sinners, who God used to do things so incredible that we still read and preach about them thousands of years later. These were all people who made mistakes. They disobeyed God, and they got off track in their faith journeys. And you know what? God forgave them. But more than that, He turned them around and used them to do the unthinkable. That is what God does. He takes ordinary people and does extraordinary things. God does not look at your ability, just your availability.
The Lord does not disqualify you because of your mistakes, because it is not about you; it’s about Him. Think of King David, whose lineage God used to fulfill His covenant. David slept with another man’s wife, had that man killed in battle, lied about it, and took the woman to be his wife (2 Samuel 11–12). Sounds like a few (big) mistakes, right? But God didn’t disqualify David. In fact, God went as far as to have Jesus descend from David’s family line.
My friend, you cannot out-sin God’s grace. There is nothing you can do to remove yourself from a place of God’s forgiveness. When He forgives, He turns us around and uses us to do remarkable things.
“Why me?” you ask. Let’s change the question to “Why not me?”
Heavenly Father, thank You for Your love for me, for welcoming me into Your family, and for inviting me into Your purposes and plans. Guide me, I pray, toward clarity and confidence in who You are, who You have made me, and what You are calling me to become. Amen.
Written for Devotionals Daily by Ed Newton, author of Why Not You?
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Your Turn
Why not you? God loves you and He has been preparing you and continues to do so for everything He calls you to do. Follow Him and enjoy the adventure! ~ Devotionals Daily