Have you ever noticed how easy it is for believers to let their “so-called” sense of calling be determined solely by their circumstances?  I have known of people to say, “I feel as if God is calling me and my family to serve in this way” and then at the first sign of trouble they say, “You know I think God is calling me elsewhere.”  Pastors are the worlds worst at this.  I once met a guy who had been in the ministry for six years and had served at four different churches.    

Is this the response we see in Scripture?  Though I believe that God equips us for what He calls us to do, is what He calls us to do always easy?  No.  Just look at the events in David’s life.  David was a man after God’s own heart—He was greatly loved and favored by God.  Did he have an easy rise to be king?  No.  Was it God’s will that he became King?   Yes.  But for fourteen years King Saul and his men hounded David and sought to kill him.  Though David had been anointed by Samuel, he was uncrowned and literally on the run for his life and had to hide in caves for fourteen years.

What about the Apostle Paul in the New Testament?  Was Paul being disobedient when he ends up in prison or when he is beaten and left for dead?  No.  He was following God—He was going where God called Him to go and doing the work God had called him to do.  Yet listen to what he says about himself in 2 Corinthians 11:23-28.

With far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. ²⁴ Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸ And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches.    

Boy this passage really takes the air out of the sails of the health and wealth crowd.  Though Paul was being obedient, he had been put through the ringer.  Yet he knew he was right where God wanted him to be doing what God had called him to do. 

Believers, at times God calls us to do things that are hard, but though that’s the case we have to be careful not to let our circumstances be the deciding factor when it comes to discerning God’s calling.  God has called you to be a part of His ministry and to serve Him in His church and in His world.  Let me encourage you this morning to let that sense of God’s calling in your life be the anchor that keeps you going and serving especially when times are tough.