There are certain moments in life that put you in a position where you have the opportunity to instantly level up in your development. One of the times this happened to me was 2 years ago. I was away on a work trip and I saw my wife calling, my first thought was “is she okay”, she rarely calls me during work. I answered and she said “well I have something to tell you” and took a long pause after saying that. I was about ready to tell her to hurry up and tell me because I still didn’t know if she was hurt or what happened. After I asked her to tell me and another long pause she told me that she was pregnant. When she told me we both just sat in silence for about 15 seconds, only because I realized I had not responded and I pulled myself together and said how excited I was and I couldn’t believe it was happening. To this day that moment was one of my favorite memories.
As my wife told me I was going to be a dad, the tactics of torment were almost instantaneous. All the negative and condemning thoughts came through but the most predominant one was “you’re not ready”. After all the reasons on why I “wasn’t ready” played through my head I caught myself thinking in the enemy’s mental frame and just asked myself “Why wouldn’t I be ready”. There is a specific verse in 2 Corinthians that comes to mind on mental control and apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 10:5 “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
This is where I had to catch myself, as all the reasons why I wasn’t ready came through. I was able to take that thought captive as Apostle Paul tells us to and compare that thought to the nature of Christ. God’s nature would not be to tell me I wasn’t ready with a blessing that He gave to me. This is why it’s so important to learn the word of God and His promises because it gives you a base line to instantly compare the thoughts you’re having to what God says.
Let’s take a second to think about some amazing stories in scripture and think about how they felt. Around the age of 15 David knew he was going to fight Goliath who came from a long blood line of giants and was a fierce warrior. It would seem reasonable that David also had the enemy and his army whispering in his ear as he went to do what God asked.
Then think about Noah who was “too old” to be leading the Israelites out of Egypt. Every single person that told Noah he was too old was acting in accordance with the powers of evil. We know this because God specifically gave the leadership to Noah for the exodus.
These are 2 people that did monumental things for the children of God and just like you and I faced the same condemning thoughts because they were fighting the same enemy.
We have to take a second and look at these thoughts as radio chatter and not our identity. There is always a reason to not be ready there is always a reason to not do what God is calling but if you choose to not listen to God’s calling you are falling into the trap the enemy and his army have set.
When you are called and ordained by God nothing on earth will stop you because we worship a God that is greater than this earth. One moment of God’s grace transcends all the effort we could possibly put in and this is why it does not matter if you feel ready or not. Any thought telling you ‘re not ready is a contradiction to God’s word and that only comes from evil.
As you are facing the idea of being unready, take a breath and realize it’s not about your ability, it’s not about your IQ, it’s not about your looks. It’s only about God’s grace and calling on your life. With God’s grace there is nothing in this world that will stop you.
Chris Lucas