Dear Pastor,
Do you ever struggle with the idea that you don’t have what it takes? Do you ever think that you should not be the person others come to, when they have questions about God and the Bible and spiritual matters?
Do you think, “I’m not right for this” or “I’m not good enough to be a pastor”?
If you are anything like me I have a variety of different thoughts that come to me whenever I need to initiate and reach out to someone to discuss spiritual matters or when they come to me for prayer or that I might help them in their faith journey. Here is a partial list of the thoughts that I have:
- “I don’t have the time to deal with this”
- “I don’t think I have the patience or strength needed for this situation”
- “I haven’t been in the Bible or prayer enough to be any use to this person”
- “I don’t have enough wisdom or experience or the gifts to really be able to help”
- “My heart is so far from perfect, and since I know my own temptation and sin how can I ever help anyone?”
- “Even though I have been praying and reading my Bible, I still don’t know that I have what it takes”
These thoughts come like missiles into my mind and threaten to destroy me before I am ever able to pick up the phone or engage with the person in front of me. So if we face this, what then should we do?
I want to share two things with you:
- May we never get to a place where we think that we are exactly the person others should seek out when they are in trouble. May we never get caught up in thinking that we have it figured out, have it together or that we have somehow “arrived” enough to personally handle that which comes our way. Let us be humble. Let us see God for who He is, see ourselves for who we are and confess the difference. Let us pray to be like Isaiah who cried “Woe is me!” when He saw the Lord in His glory and was reminded and made aware of both his own personal insufficiency and the amazing grace of God.
- Furthermore, let us pray and think to ourselves when we get the phone call, visit or other communique’:
- “Although I am not enough to answer this, God is” or
- “Though I am tired, weary, and weak, I know that God in me is sufficient to address this”, or
- “Though my sins and temptations should disqualify me for this, God’s grace is sufficient to forgive me, cleanse me, save and sanctify me and use me”.
Finally let us prayerfully and with great attentiveness, listen to the other person and listen to the Holy Spirit. Then let us proceed cautiously and tenderly to point people to Jesus and His Word and to pray with them, leaning on His promises and goodness. Let us not allow our own insufficiency to hinder His gracious and powerful ability to use a willing, surrendered and humble vessel.
Finally, there are things that we can do in advance to fight off the accusations and doubts that come in the day to day moments of ministry. Read A LOT of Scripture, spend daily time in prayer, fast weekly (if you can) to spend more time with God and to learn the gift of sacrifice, memorize Scripture (particularly what God says about you) and finally get into a pastoral group for edification and encouragement.
Let me know in the comments if you have had similar thoughts when the phone rings or someone comes calling and how you have handled it.
Remember: Christ is with us, Christ is in us!
Pastor Michael Johnson 