Daily Encounter: A Week-day Devotional by a staff of ACTS International.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

"I [God] will send the hornet ahead of you to drive the Hivites, Canaanites and Hittites out of your way."¹

In much younger days I used to play a guitar (long before they became as popular as they are today) and sing. One of my favorite songs was the "Hornet Song" that went something like the following:

When the Canaanites hardened their hearts against God,
And grieved Him because of their sin,
God sent along hornets to bring them to terms,
And to help His own people to win.

Now the hornets persuaded them that it was best
To go quickly and not to go slow,
They didn't compel them to go 'gainst their will.
But they just made them willing to go.

If a nest of live hornets were brought to this room,
And the creatures allowed to go free,
You would not need urging to make yourself scarce,
You'd want to get out, don't you see!

When Jonah was sent to the work of the Lord,
The outlook was not very bright,
Why he never had done such a hard thing before,
So he backed out and ran off from the fight.

Now, the Lord sent a big fish to swallow him up,
The story I am sure you all know,
God didn't compel him to go 'gainst his will,
But He just made him willing to go.

Chorus:
God doesn't compel us to go, oh, no!
He never compels us to go,
God does not compel us to go 'gainst our will,
But He just makes us willing to go.

So here I am today—many years hence—doing with my life what I believe God wants me to do—and finding it incredibly fulfilling. "God's hornets" for me involved an accident on a construction site that put me in the hospital for a few days and out of work for a few weeks while recuperating. God had to put me flat on my back so I would stop and hear what he had been trying to get me to hear for about three years. While in the hospital I "heard" God's call—loud and clear—and "knew that I knew that I knew" what I needed to do. That was to go back to school and train for a lifetime of Christian ministry. How thankful I am today for the "hornets" God has sent into my life on several other occasions as well.

Suggested prayer: "Dear God, thank You that your call to each one of us is persistent, so please give me hearing ears and a listening heart to hear you call that I will know without a doubt that I am fulfilling my God-given life purpose to the very best of my ability. Thank You for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus's name, amen."

1. Exodus 23: 28 (NIV).

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