{"id":32324,"date":"2022-09-10T16:05:06","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-to-joyfully-embrace-the-unknown-in-your-calling\/"},"modified":"2022-09-10T16:05:06","modified_gmt":"2022-09-10T21:05:06","slug":"how-to-joyfully-embrace-the-unknown-in-your-calling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/how-to-joyfully-embrace-the-unknown-in-your-calling\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Joyfully Embrace the Unknown in Your Calling"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Benjamin Davies photo – Unsplash<\/div>\n

By Scarlet Hiltibidal<\/em><\/p>\n

I used to feel very uncomfortable around \u201cmissions\u201d people. You know who I\u2019m talking about. The people who move to third-world countries on purpose or who run mission teams at church or people who try to get you to think about going on missions trips. <\/p>\n

I avoided these people because I assumed that they\u2019d either pressure me to do something I didn\u2019t want to do, or they\u2019d take one look at me and label me a bad Christian for not wanting to be a part of their particular missional interest. My fear was so thick that I subconsciously avoided listening to God.<\/p>\n

About five years ago, our friends Jake and Anna were visiting and Anna said something that stuck with me. I was sharing some of these Africa\/leprosy\/boil\/missionary-related fears with her.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cShame and worry are not from God. You\u2019re His daughter. If He wants you to move to Africa, you\u2019re going to want to move to Africa. God loves you, Scarlet. Wherever He leads you, He\u2019s going to give you joy in it . . .\u201d <\/p>\n

King David thought the same thing. He wrestled lions and battled giants, which, on the surface, seems harder than moving to another country and he said in Psalm 37:4 (esv), \u201cDelight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I don\u2019t know why I\u2019ve always had the idea that living for God meant kicking and screaming my way through a miserable life. Paul wasn\u2019t miserable as he was stoned and beaten for God. I\u2019m sure it wasn\u2019t his favorite, but he counted it all as joy.<\/p>\n

After Jake and Anna left, I stood in the kitchen of my little apartment and said, \u201cGod . . . I\u2019m scared to talk to You . . . I\u2019m scared to want You . . .\u201d<\/p>\n

Everything in me wanted to end my prayer there. Everything in me wanted to look at my phone and get affirmation from strangers on Facebook. Everything in me wanted to shout upstairs, \u201cEver, let\u2019s go to the park!\u201d But I forced myself to stand still. I forced myself to feel the fear and look to God.<\/p>\n

I continued, now through tears, \u201cGod, I don\u2019t want to be close to You, because I know that as soon as I am, You\u2019re going to take my daughter. You\u2019re going to test me. You\u2019re going to take Brandon away. Right?\u201d<\/p>\n

And the Holy Spirit responded with gentleness. He responded with His Word. He responded with \u201cThe Cure for Anxiety\u201d as my Bible\u2019s subheading calls it.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore I tell you: Don\u2019t worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink: or about your body, what you will wear. Isn\u2019t life more than food and the body more than clothing? Consider the birds of the sky: They don\u2019t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren\u2019t you worth more than they?\u201d (Matt. 6:25\u201326)<\/p>\n

Well, I guess I\u2019m worth more to You than the birds, but look at Job. He loved you and You let Satan take everything he loved . . .<\/p>\n

I read again . . . \u201cIf you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him\u201d (Matt. 7:11).<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to explain the big meaningful interactions I\u2019ve had with God. They tend to have a major you-had-to-be-there feel. But as I stood in that kitchen, enveloped in the agony of my fear, I felt God reach in and brush it away effortlessly, like when you gently blow a stray hair out of your face and back into place. <\/p>\n

In that little, weirdly shaped kitchen, God poured the truth of His Word into my soul. In those minutes that I didn\u2019t run from His presence, the words I\u2019d read and known and twisted into condemnation were clear. \u201cHow much more will your Father in heaven give good things?\u201d<\/p>\n

I stood in that kitchen and cried in His arms. I can\u2019t remember what my then-three-year-old was doing up in her room, but I was standing on holy kitchen linoleum as the Lord reassured me, that I am loved, not because I am good, but because He is good. I am scared, but He is good.<\/p>\n

The Lord is good to everyone; his compassion rests on all he has made. (Ps. 145:9)<\/p>\n

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17)<\/p>\n

God doesn\u2019t delight in hurting His children. His wrath is not poured out on His beloved. When He looks out at His broken people living in this still-so-broken world, He is full of mercy and compassion. And when we walk through the pains of death and trauma and our crippling imaginary concerns, He isn\u2019t the enemy. He isn\u2019t the aggressor. He\u2019s the Comforter.<\/p>\n

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. (2 Cor. 1:3\u20135)<\/p>\n

When the Holy Spirit gave me the grace to see God as my Good Father and Comforter in this world broken by sin, I stopped running away from Him and started running to Him. When the gospel made clear that God has already given me His own Son, I stopped being afraid of the \u201cscary\u201d situations that bring me close to Him.<\/p>\n

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Scarlet Hiltibidal<\/h2>\n

@ScarletEH<\/strong><\/p>\n

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See also  Is It \u2018Ministry Failure\u2019 To See a Counselor?<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Scarlet is the author of Afraid of All the Things<\/em> and He Numbered the Pores on My Face<\/em>. She enjoys speaking to women around the country about the freedom and rest available in Jesus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n