The Voice That Says "Not You"

1 Timothy 1:12-13a (CEB) · The Gospel on Stage and Screen

“I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength because he considered me faithful. So he appointed me to ministry.” — 1 Timothy 1:12 (CEB)

Somewhere in you lives a voice that keeps a list. It names the reasons you are the wrong person for what God might be asking: too young, too old, too tired, too unprepared, too much history, too little experience. It specializes in disqualification, and it speaks loudest right when something asks for a yes.

Paul knew that voice. He had spoken against Jesus, attacked the church, and been proud. Anyone glancing at his record would have agreed he was the wrong man. And yet, he writes, Christ “considered me faithful. So he appointed me to ministry.”

Notice the order. The considering came first, the appointing after. The disqualifications did not disappear; they got overruled. The voice that says not you is not God’s voice. God’s voice calls you faithful while you are still catching up to the calling.

Calling God, quiet the voice that keeps reading my record back to me. Help me hear the one who considers me faithful while I am still becoming. Amen.