Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Does doubting offend the Lord?



How do we affirm the call without doubting it?

In this day and age when an increasing number of young people profess to have received a Word from the Lord, there is a need to verify. This is not out of disbelief but out of high regard to the task.  It has been said that the Lord qualifies the unqualified. How do we close the gap between that and the quality assurance prerequisites? Aspiring pastors have to allow God to lead them to a process of preparation before stepping up to the position. The church cannot afford to take risks on an unchanged leader. 

Without hearing from the Lord, it makes all other qualifications worthless. If one is certain and unshakable with the calling, it is a good start. There is also a collection of job qualifications. Some of these are innate but most are achieved through life training. Basically, everything boils down to this: the certainty of the call from the perspective of God and man, verified by qualifications. 

Re-checking is not doubting the call but defending it from doubts. It takes courage and wisdom to face the question without questioning if it really was God who made the call.