Did I Pass The Test?

Genesis 22:1 (NLT) Some time later, God tested Abraham’s faith. “Abraham!” God called. “Yes,” he replied. “Here I am.”

After completing Bible school I felt I was prepared to enter into ministry. I was excited and ready to take on the world – to preach, love and care for those that God would put into my life. I had sat under and had been trained by many godly men and women of faith who imparted their years of knowledge into my life. I had also grown up in a home that was dedicated to ministry and to helping the needs of others. I saw firsthand what ministry was all about. I saw the ups and the downs – the joys and the sadness that ministry sometimes encompasses. Now it was my turn. I remember succinctly one day that my dad called me into his office and closed the door. I had, by that time, accepted my first church in the state of Washington and was packing up my office and my family to become a senior pastor of a small church in a community that I had never even been to before. As the door closed, he sat down and looked me straight in the eye and told me that he wanted to tell me some things that would help me in ministry. I thought perhaps that he was going to lay his hand on my head and speak a prophetic word about how I would go out and reach thousands for Christ and how I would be the next Billy Graham and the world was waiting with abated breath just to hear me preach. How wrong I was. He simply sat down and told me that God spoke to him and told him to tell me that there was going to be no shortcuts in ministry for my life and went on to say that I would have to take every corner hard.( It’s kind of the picture of someone coming up to a red light and cutting through a gas station to beat the light). I was gracious and thanked him but inwardly I thought that he didn’t get it. “I was the anointed one. I was the called one. My parents we’re successful pastors. I would follow right into their footsteps; I would have great ministry success, etc.” It was true that God had great plans for me and that God would use me mightily in His kingdom but it was also true that I would have to take every corner square and that there would be no shortcuts. In fact, I look back now and think that God made a few of the corners even sharper and longer because He had invaluable lessons for me to learn. He tested me from the time I began in ministry and the test continued to get harder and harder the longer I was in ministry. When God chose to take me into ministry and to make me go deeper in Him, I never knew the path that I would ultimately take. I never knew the sadness and loneliness that would have to endure. I never knew of the hardships and grief that I would have to bear. On the other hand – I never knew the joy that I would come to have – the depth of growth and maturity that God would bring into my life. I would get to see people’s lives changed and see God do so many miracles that it would be hard to count. When God chose to test Abraham – Abraham simply stated, “Here I am.” I think that is my prayer also today, “Lord, Here I am. Use me in any way that you so desire. Whatever you need to do to prepare me for the task ahead – then, by all means, do it. I’m willing and ready to be used by you.” I hope that as I come to the latter end of my life (I will be 57 tomorrow) that I will continue to past this test and that my heavenly Father will always say about me, “Well done, good and faithful servant. May you enter into the joy of the Lord.”