In Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah hears the voice of Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Isaiah hears this voice after he had been touched by the Lord to atone for his sins and to wipe away his sinful ways. Isaiah hears the voice, and he simply responds by saying, “Here am I. Send me.”
Isaiah didn’t know what the task was going to be. He didn’t know what he was committing to do, but he responded by saying, “Send me.” He had been prepared to be and to do whatever the Lord was going to ask of him.
In John, 21:19, Jesus is talking with Peter. Three times Jesus had a question and a directive for Peter. He asked Peter if he loved Him, and each time Peter responded by saying yes. After Peter’s responses, Jesus directed Peter to simply feed His sheep. At the end of all this, Jesus says to Peter, “Follow Me.”
Unlike Isaiah earlier, who knew he had been prepared to go and to do whatever the Lord asked, Peter didn’t really know what was coming, but he was willing to go along because it was for Jesus. He wasn’t yet prepared for what he was going to be called to be or to do.
There are times when Jesus calls on each of us to follow Him to play a role in the game of life. We are like Peter. If Jesus is the owner of the team, we are all eager to be a part of the team no matter if we are prepared or not. We are eager to tell Him that we are ready to play, and we even think of the position we believe is best for us.
We tell Him we can be the quarterback because we know we can through the ball far and accurately. Or we tell Him we can be a wide receiver because we can run fast, and we have great hands. Then some of us will tell Him we can be the running back because we are quick and agile, and we hold onto the ball. Still, a few of us would say we are best suited to be on the front lines because we are strong, and we can make a way for everyone else to have a breakthrough game.
With Peter, all Jesus wanted him to do was to simply feed His sheep; nothing highly visible but important to the life of the sheep. Three times He said this to Peter. I imagine Peter was surprised. He probably wanted to do something more important.
Jesus listens to all of us, and He finally says to us, “I don’t need you to be the quarterback or the wide receiver or the running back or the lineman. I need you to be the football.” Jesus knows that it will be easier for us to be and to do what he wants when we are willing to give up thinking about how the game is going and how important we believe we are to the outcome.
You see the football is just a tool in the hands of the quarterback, the wide receiver, the running back and the lineman. The football doesn’t think of what it wants to do to win the game. It knows it will be kicked around, thrown around, tugged, and pounced on. Sometimes it will even be spiked like it wasn’t important to the outcome of the game, yet the game cannot be played without a football.
Like the football, life cannot be played the way Jesus wants us to play it if we are not willing to let Him decide the roles we play and who ultimately wins. We just need to be willing to be the part of life people never really think about, but it is the key to all their life. We must learn that it’s okay to be the football in the hands of Jesus.
The question is, now that you know ahead of time, will you allow Him to prepare you for the role of a football, and will you go when He asks, “Who will go for Us?”
Life a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 