What are you called?
by Jilly Lyon-Taylor
When the Lord appeared to him, Gideon was busy threshing wheat, in fear of his enemies – an ordinary man, doing an ordinary job, with normal human emotions. When the Lord addressed him as ‘mighty warrior’, his reaction was to say, ‘Who, me? But I’m the least in my family and our clan is the weakest’. In other words, ‘You’ve got to be joking; you’ve got the wrong guy!’ But God knew exactly why He was addressing Gideon in that way.
The word for ‘call’ in the Bible is used partly to imply calling by name, as in Isaiah 61:3b: ‘They will be called oaks of righteousness,’ or Genesis 17:5 when God tells Abram that he would no longer be called Abram but Abraham, as he would be the father of many nations. Names signify something of the essence of who the person is and what they will be. But the word for call is also used to mean calling to a task. So when God calls Gideon ‘mighty warrior’, that is how He sees him and it also signifies what He is calling him to do.
What is God calling you? - My Son, My Daughter, My Beloved, My Precious One, Mighty Warrior, Leader, Teacher, Shepherd? Many of us feel so insignificant and unworthy that we are unable to believe that God would be calling us in that way, and our response is, ‘Who me? You’ve got to be joking!’ Let’s ask God today how He sees us and what He calls us, and let’s believe that that is what we are and what we are called to be.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, please forgive me for not always believing how You see me. Please show me today what You are calling me, and help me to believe that that is who I am and what I am called to be. Amen.
Jilly Lyon-Taylor is part of the Leadership Team at Ellel Pierrepont. She worked in publishing and then with children in Hong Kong before concentrating on being a full-time mother and serving in the local church. Her desire to see people healed led her to the Luke Nine Eleven Training Scheme(NETS) at Pierrepont, and now she teaches and ministers there.
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