Answering The Call

Answering the Call

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. Matthew 9:9, NIV

That’s it? Follow Me.

So Matthew got up and followed Him. Really? He had a business, didn’t he? Not many friends, I suppose, since he was the tax collector. But still. Follow Me. Two words? That’s all it took? I wish it were that easy.

You see it every night in baseball, when the manager calls to the bullpen for a relief pitcher. “Let’s go! I need you—now!” As intense as some of those situations can be, it’s still a far cry from a call to abandon the life you knew for the potential one promised. And unlike the relief pitcher, Matthew didn’t know exactly what he was getting into.

There must have been something special in that call for Matthew to choose to leave all the money, power, position, and affluent lifestyle to follow this man who looked like just another guy. Before that moment Jesus was nobody to Matthew. What do you think got Matthew’s attention?

Maybe Matthew asked around and found out what Jesus did for a living—ah, He was a carpenter. Not that impressive. Jesus was a former working man who was walking around the countryside telling stories and saying things that were getting the religious rulers of the day riled up. A guy who ate locusts and wore clothes made from animal hair—John the Baptist—claimed Jesus was the promised Messiah. Really? Follow Me. Matthew would later learn that this Follow Me scenario happened over and over again.

But that’s the way God does it. That’s the way God’s call on your life can be—powerful. You may turn your back on it. You might ignore it for a while. Maybe you laugh at how ridiculous it all sounds. Me? You want me? And you can run from it—for a while. But only a while. Because if it truly is a call of God on your life to follow Him, it will never go away.

That was the case with Matthew and Peter and the other disciples. They immediately recognized God’s call on their lives as something irresistible.

And because they did, the world has never been the same.

What about you? What is God calling you to accomplish for Him?

Uncommon Key > Remember this: when God calls you to follow Him, He will keep reminding you until you take some kind of action.