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The Calling.
by Patricia A.A. Schwabe
Topics: Calling, Purpose, Obedience
A man was sleeping at night in his cabin when suddenly he heard a voice that trembled like the thunder. It was God's voice and he told the man he had work for him to do, and showed him a large rock in front of his cabin. God explained that the man was to push against the rock with all his might. This the man did, day after day.
For many years he toiled from sun up to sundown, his shoulders set squarely against the cold, massive surface of the unmoving rock, pushing with all his might. Each night the man returned to his cabin sore, and worn out, feeling that his whole day had been spent in vain.
Seeing that the man was showing signs of discouragement, Satan decided to enter the picture by placing thoughts into the man's weary mind: "You have been pushing against that rock for a long time, and it hasn't budged. Why kill yourself over this? You are never going to move it." Thus giving the man the impression that the task was impossible and that he was a failure, these thoughts discouraged and disheartened the man.
"Why kill myself over this?" he thought. "I'll just put in my time,
giving just the minimum effort and that will be good enough." And that
he planned to do until one day he decided to make it a matter
of prayer and take his troubled thoughts to God. "God," he said, "I
have labored long and hard in your service, putting all my strength to
do that which you have asked. Yet, after all this time, I have not even
budged that rock by half a millimeter. What is wrong? Why am I failing?"
God responded compassionately, "My friend, when I asked you to serve me and you accepted, I told you that your task was to push against the rock with all your strength, which you have done. Never once did I mention to you that I expected you to move it. Your task was to push. And now you come to me, with your strength spent, thinking that you have failed. But, is that really so?"
"Look at yourself. Your arms are strong and muscled, your back sinewed and brown, your hands are calloused from constant pressure, and your legs have become massive and hard. Through opposition you have grown much and your abilities now surpass that which you used to have. Yet you haven't moved the rock. But your calling was to be obedient and to push and to exercise your faith and trust in My wisdom. This you have done."
"I, my friend, will now move the rock."
At times when we read the Scriptures, we tend to use our own intellect to decipher what He wants, when actually what God wants is just simple obedience and faith in Him.
By all means exercise the faith that moves mountains, but it is still God who actually moves the mountains