February 4 – On-call

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give hope and a future” - Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

A few months ago, following a few dodgy phone calls and loads of cold-callers, I decided to buy a call-blocker telephone. It's great. All calls are filtered, and no-one gets to speak with me without first being asked their name, then I am asked if I will accept their call before they are put through.

Now, I know the Lord hasn't got a smart phone or the equivalent, but I got to thinking what my reaction would be if one day, I pick up the phone and hear the operator say, “You have a call from Almighty God. To receive the call, press.....” Would I block it? Or would I answer His call? Not an easy answer because just the word call or calling indicates a destination that is unclear, but by saying “Yes,” it means we must move forward in faith.

God's call might intimidate us, but history tells us an important truth. Callings are meant to be obeyed.

Imagine that call - “You Want Me to Do What?! Leave home – give up a good teaching job, go into full-time Christian writing, speaking, and teaching? What would our response be - “I think God wants me to leave my job! I don’t want to do that! I love my job!”....total panic! But perhaps God isn't calling us to do that just YET, only telling us to start thinking about what we CAN do when His time is right, and we are ready. Think of the Bible characters who received God's call but didn't actually begin their work for some years....three for instance - Moses, Samuel, and Jeremiah – called by God before his birth, he worked as God’s prophet for forty years or more, from 627 b.c. to some time after 586 b.c. Four long decades.

Yes, God's call might be intimidating but remember when Paul and his companions arrived at Troas? Doors had closed. Their future was uncertain. A question loomed in their minds: Now what? They needed God's call more than ever - and it came that night! No, Paul's phone didn't ring, but he did hear something – a man in a vision calling “Come over to Macedonia and help us” (Acts 16:9). Why did Paul and his team respond? Because “God was calling us to preach the Good News” (Acts 16:10).

The calling God gave to Paul is the same calling He is giving us – the Great Commission, to “make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19). As I said earlier, You want me to do what?! All the nations? There's no way I can do that! No, we can't, but then we were never meant to do it alone. The Great Commission was given to all of us....with each of us playing a part -God's plan – His calling.

God's plan for our lives will take us in a new, different and exciting direction. In that process we will discover something wonderful: God’s call on our lives can change. After all, Scripture promises:

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21 NIV

Our song today? “Little is Much When God is in It” (LIVE) Click on the picture of Paul and his call to Macedonia to listen.