Taking Any Calls?

Having escorted sin into a previously perfect world, Adam found himself in the ridiculous position of hiding from God. Yes, we see in Genesis 3:8 and 9, the Lord "walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze," calling out to Adam, "Where are you?" But are we to believe that the omnipresent Lord God Almighty doesn’t know Adam’s location amongst the trees and bushes? Had Adam discovered a some secretive place that God couldn’t reach? Of course not.

Jonah got on a boat, headed for Tarshish - the opposite direction of Nineveh, the place God had instructed him to go. On the boat, he went to down below to the very bowels of the ship, no doubt in an effort, like Adam, to hide himself from God.

How foolish we are to think that we can run or hide from God. Often we think only pastors or preachers have callings, but I think we all have a calling to pursue. It might be a temporary calling, like Jonah’s call to preach at Nineveh, or a life calling as Moses discovered in front of a burning bush. But we’re all subject to callings on our lives. God’s call on our lives is consistent. Notice in Jonah 1:2, God’s calling for Jonah is to: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me." After fleeing on the boat, being thrown overboard, being swallowed by a great fish in which he spent three days inside its belly, and vomited up on shore, Jonah’s instructions from God in Jonah 3:2 are to: "Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you." Notice the change of game plan before the first and second message from God? Neither do I, because there is none. Like Jonah, we can’t outrun the consistency and the persistency of God’s calling on our lives.

Now, you might say I really don’t know God’s calling for me, and you’re probably right. One reason for this is a simple one: we fail to ask. Another reason is we cloud ourselves so much with the comings and goings of the world, we fail to develop the type of relationship necessary to know exactly what God has in mind for us. Walkie talkies are useful instruments, but if only one unit is turned on, they’re worthless. Or, if there’s so much noise going on around us that we can’t hear them, again they’re not of much use. Through prayer and God’s word, leave your receiver on and eliminate a lot of the needless noise of the world. God’s calling will be consistent and persistent.