“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”
Romans 11:29 (NASB)
There is a popular Christian proverb, “God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called.”
God has called each of us to do something good for His kingdom, and regardless of how many times we fail or become distracted on our faith journey, His calling never changes. There are examples throughout scripture of people God called to do a great task even though they were weak, arrogant or completely unqualified for the job. It’s a soul inspiring truth.
God has a long history of using flawed people to do important tasks. It seems like a paradox, but there are many stories in scripture, about people who were called by God, even though they were weak, flawed or selfish, and yet God used them in great ways. Despite our human failures, the calling of God is an irrevocable one.
If we ever feel unqualified to do a job that we were asked to do for our church or in another ministry, we can remind ourselves of the following men in scripture. God selected many unlikely people to fulfill important tasks. He chose people we would never choose, if it were based on their resumes.
Moses once killed an Egyptian taskmaster and then fled as a fugitive into the wilderness. God called him through a fiery burning bush, to lead 600,000 people out of slavery from Egypt. Moses had some type of speech problem, possibly a stutter, telling the Lord that he was the wrong man to ask, since he was slow of speech and slow of tongue. (Exodus 4:10)
He proved to be a great leader with courage, patience, and faith despite his shortcomings and past history.
Balaam was a prophet, who sought his own personal advancement. He delivered many messages in God’s name, while cursing groups of people, who God never told him to curse. He did it for personal gain by seeking the political approval of bad men who were in powerful positions.
One day, God sent an angel to stop him from delivering another false prophecy. Balaam didn’t see the angel but his donkey did, and God gave the donkey the ability to talk back to Balaam, which changed his heart, and led him to prophesy only what God commanded him to say, from that day on. (Numbers 22:30)
Jonah was an arrogant man, and yet he was called by God to go to the city of Nineveh and preach a message of repentance to the Ninevite people. Jonah flat out refused to obey, because he didn’t think the Ninevites were worthy of God’s mercy. He booked a ride on a boat going in the opposite direction, far away from Nineveh. A storm arose, the ship almost sank, and one thing led to another, until a whale tossed Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh, the exact place he tried to run away from.
It’s unbelievable that God used such flawed men to help large groups of people discover His mercy. The men who God called, learned their lessons in the end, and were changed, living their lives differently, but God had to use some unlikely things to get His point across to them, like a burning bush, a talking donkey and the belly of a whale.
We can also see God’s irrevocable calling on Peter, the apostle who is the rock of the church. Three times, he denied ever knowing Jesus, but it didn’t change the calling that God had for him. Just like Moses, Balaam and Jonah, God gave each man more than one chance to find their faith, stand corrected and be restrengthened.
God is so good that He chooses to work within our flaws and failures, because that’s what it means to have an irrevocable calling by a God of love. The next time we want to turn down an opportunity that seems to require more than we are qualified for, we should remember that God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called. We serve an amazing God whose gifts and calling are forever irrevocable.
Lord, thank you for your faithfulness, even when we are faithless. Guide us in the path and direction that we were born for, and refresh in us, a renewed sense of our calling. Amen
