Don't Ask God What He Has Already Told You

I was called into leadership. I was minding my own business when it happened. I wasn't asking God for it. I told Him I would do whatever He asked. He didn't ask. He told me to go into the ministry. I wasn't reluctant to go into the ministry. I just didn't want to be a pastor.

I originally thought I would be a minister to college students. I have always had a heart for students. I served part-time in a Baptist Student Ministry campus. I served as an Associate Student Minister at a large church.

Let's face it: I was terrible. The students didn't relate to me well.

That didn't change my calling. It only changed my location (area) of ministry. I served as a Singles minister. The singles tolerated me but I can't say I really rang the bell. I served as a church administrator. I did okay but the church needed someone beyond my abilities before too long. Besides, it wasn't the ministry of the Word that I always wanted.

Finally, I became the senior pastor or a church. I longed for Sundays to preach. I love what I do. However, this doesn't mean that I love everything I do.

Each struggle brings me to ask God if this is really what He wants me to do. I'm really not equipped to do anything else. I am too old anything much different from what I am doing. I don't know why I should ask God what He has already told me. Maybe I need some reassurance.

Don't you think that its amazing that Moses asked God why he would be called to lead God's people out of Egypt but didn't ask God each time the people questioned his leadership? I believe I would find myself asking God every time they wanted to stone me. Even his brother and sister opposed him at one point. Did they think that Moses had come on his own authority to be their leader?

God calls people to a task and something goes wrong. Joshua was called and he lost the battle of Ai. He goes to God to question what God has already told Him. God tells him to get up and fix the problem or he will not have His favor when he continues in the Promised Land.

Being called to leadership by God does not assure everything will sail smoothly all the time. In fact, many things didn't go well for Moses or Joshua. There was sin in the camp. There were unfaithful people. There was a great desire to go back to the way things were.

But when God calls you should not go back and ask Him what He said if you are certain that He said it in the first place. Why ask Him what He has already told you?

Exodus 3:10-11 (NIV)
"So now, go I am sending you to Pharoah to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt. "
But Moses said to God, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharoah and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"