We are the greatest excuse makers in the world.  Whenever God wants us to do something good, we always manage to come up with a hundred excuses as to why we can’t do it.

Even the prophets of the Old Testament, those holy men whom God called to preach to his people, were full of excuses.  God called Jeremiah to be His prophet and Jeremiah said he couldn’t do it because he didn’t know how to speak.  He could only stutter like a child.  He had no talent or skill to be a prophet.

When God called Isaiah, Isaiah said he couldn’t be a prophet because he was an unclean man.  He was not very holy.  But God sent His angel to take a burning coal from the brazier and purify Isaiah lips with it.  Isaiah’s excuse was that He couldn’t do God’s work because it was a holy work, and he was not a very holy man.

God called Amos to be His prophet and Amos complained that he didn’t have any experience.  There were no prophets in his family and he didn’t belong to the group of prophets.  Amos also said he was only good at taking care of the fruit trees.

Jonah knew all about excuses, so when God called him, he didn’t try to make excuses.  He decided to run away from God instead.  But he soon realized that you can’t run from God.  If God wants you, He is always going to catch up with you no matter where you try to hide.

Jonah went down to the harbor of Nineveh and tried to run away on a ship that was leaving port.  But God sent the storm and Jonah had to admit to the captain of the ship that he was running away from God.

The pattern of the call of the prophets is always the same.  God calls them; they make excuses.  God says it doesn’t matter; I want you to be my prophet in spite of all your excuses.

The excuses are there in the New Testament as well.  When Christ called James and John, they could have said that they couldn’t leave their father and the family business.  But they did leave their father.  Matthew could have said that he was too busy and couldn’t leave his office to follow Christ.  But he did.  Peter and Andrew could have said that they had to keep on fishing to support their families instead of following Christ.  But they didn’t.

Mary Magdalene could have made a very good excuse of her own sinfulness.  Martha could have said -and did say -that she had too much work to do in the kitchen to listen to Christ.  Christ himself could have said that He was too tired to heal the people on that Sabbath evening, or to talk to the children.  But He didn’t.

There is an old Jewish proverb, which says: “God gives you a job to do.  He doesn’t say that you will always succeed, but He does say that you can’t quit.”  We all have a job to do in our lives.  God wants us to be a good father or a good mother, or a good wife, or a good husband.  He doesn’t say that we will always succeed in what we ought to be, but He does say that we can never stop trying to be good at it.  We can’t make excuses.

Discussion:

1. Could you recall a situation where you had a calling or God wants you to do something and you made excuses.

2. What would you resolve to do to avoid this in the future?