There’s an old hymn we used to sing in church called “Pass Me Not”. Fred Johnson made it famous in the early 1980’s with his soulful rendition of it. The first verse goes like this:
Pass me not, gentle Savior, Hear my humble cry,
While on others Thou art calling
Do not pass me by.
These words bring immediate conviction to me as, unfortunately, mine was the opposite reaction to God’s call. Instead of pleading with Him to call me into action, I was suggesting He call others to do my job. This is something I am not proud of but I confess it out of remorse and regret.
God’s calling is special. Each one of us is called to a specific calling, vocation, ministry. It really does not matter what that calling is – when God calls you to do something, it is important. Think about that: the God of the universe thought of me and said, “What would I want Joe to do?” And He did that for each one of you as well. We are on God’s mind! That’s a crazy thought, but it is supported by Scripture.
Here is a portion of Scripture from Psalm 139 that illustrates how God was thinking of us even before we were born:
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand...” – Psalms 139:13-18
If God thinks of us that much while we are being formed in our mother’s wombs, how much more so now? It’s tempting to think “well, I was sinless in my mother’s womb.
Now I have disappointed God so much that He no longer thinks about me.” Well, that is just not true!
In Isaiah 49, He says to faithless, sinful Israel:
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though She may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands…” - Isaiah 49:15-16
I cannot imagine a nursing mother forgetting her baby. Yet God says that though she may forget, He will not forget us! When I said “no” to God, He did not forget me. He did not stop thinking of me or give up on me. He waited patiently, as a loving father would do, and kept wooing me gently into calling He had for me – a calling that was designed especially for me to do. And I am so glad that He did.
He will not forget you or abandon you. Don’t let anyone ever tell you that He does not care about us or is not thinking about us. That is a lie from the pit of hell. You are on God’s mind right now and I hope He is on yours as well.
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