The Right Person for the Job

Monday Devotional

But now, this is what the LORD says—

he who created you, O Jacob,

he who formed you, O Israel:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name; you are mine.”

Isaiah 43:1

If you were to ask most seminary professors to name the top ten preachers of all time, on the vast majority of those lists—if not on all—would undoubtedly fall the name Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892), the celebrated Baptist often referred to as the “prince of preachers.” His sermons became so popular his church had to build a tabernacle that could seat the six thousand people who wanted to hear him, and many leading newspapers around the world (Spurgeon ministered in London) printed weekly transcripts of his messages.

And yet in one sermon Spurgeon made an astonishing confession: “I have been lAmenting my unfitness for my work.”1

Who could imagine that Spurgeon, one of the most successful ever at his position, could feel inadequate for a task at which he clearly excelled?

And yet I meet many involved and capable parents who feel the same way. “Maybe,” they think, “I’m just not up to the task. Parenting asks of me skills and wisdom and energy I just don’t possess.”

Have you ever been there?

The Great Discourager, Satan, has a way of distracting us with pernicious questions: “Who are you to raise a child? What makes you think that you, of all people, can be a parent? These children would be better off without you!”