[Ed’s note: this post was originally written 9-1-14. That was just days before God called me to Turkey. As I spend a good chunk of this past month working with and teaching refugees, this title phrase has rung through my mind over and over again. I was born for this.]
“Now my soul is deeply troubled. Should I pray, ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But this is the very reason I came! Father, bring glory to your name.” Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.” (John 12:27-28)
Read: Job 40:1 – 42:17, 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, Psalm 45:1-17, Proverbs 22:14
Relate: Je n’ai pas peur des soldats, car ma route m’ a été ouverte, et si les soldats viennent, j’ai Dieu, mon Seigneur, qui saura comment libérer la route qui mène à Sieur le Dauphin. C’est pour cela que je fus nais.
Nearly seven hundred years back, a young teenage girl who grew up in a small village in rural France left her home for the nearby town of Vaucouleurs. She believed God had sent her on a mission to raise the French Dauphin (prince) to the crown and to kick the English out of her homeland. Another local woman asked her, “Aren’t you afraid? You are just a girl and there will be soldiers on every side.” It is good to remember that from the perspective of a lowly peasant of this time, there was no such thing as a good soldier. There were bad soldiers that supposedly fought on your side and bad soldiers that fought on the other side. Whichever side they fought on, you did not want them to show up in your home. No matter who they fought for, when they arrived there was a good chance the women would be raped and the food stolen.
In spite of this, the young teenage girl answered without a shadow of a doubt. Her response is written above, but for those like me who don’t speak French, let me translate: “I do not fear the soldiers, for my road is made open to me; and if the soldiers come, I have God, my Lord, who will know how to clear the route that leads to the Dauphin. It was for this that I was born.” This response is often shortened to the famous quote, “I am not afraid… I was born to do this.” That courageous teenage girl? We know her today as Joan of Arc.
React: Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is the ability to look fear in the face and then keep moving forward anyways. Even Jesus demonstrated fear. He didn’t deny it. Instead, He looked beyond it. “My soul is deeply troubled. But should I pray for escape? No. I was born for this! Father, bring glory to Your Name.”
Jesus had a cause that compelled Him to push past any doubts or fears. That cause was me. Joan had a cause. She fought for French liberty long before anyone else thought there was even the most remote possibility of success. Do we have a cause? How strongly does it compel us? God has created each one of us for a purpose. Are we living it?
Respond:
Dear God,
Give me the courage to stand up and step out for You. Give me a passion and a hunger to see Your Kingdom advance at any cost. Sometimes it might seem as though the deck is stacked against me. It might seem as though what You have called me to, what You created me for, is impossible. In those moments, let me just shout out, “I was born for this” and then jump.
Amen
THE RIVER WALK 
Very inspiring post. Thank you!
Another example of such courage is found in Scripture in the story of Esther. When the king rendered a decree to kill all the Jews, unaware that his queen Esther was a Jew, she had go before the king without being summoned … instant death if he did not grant her access to him. Her uncle, Mordecai, urged her to go to the king and said in Esther 4:14 “Who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this!” In other words, you were put in this position so that, when your people were in peril, you could be the one God uses to rescue them. Your statement “God has created each one of us for a purpose” is abundantly true. I would simply add, that the purpose we have is unique to each of us, and it is our duty, in response to the love God has given to us, to fulfill that which He has directed as our purpose because it is a purpose that only we have.
The greatest call we all have who follow Christ is to become a Saint. For when all blemishes are cleansed from our souls, then only will we be ready to be in God’s presence. And that is saintly.
To do this we must, like Joan, put our own interests aside for the sake of Christ’s.
-Alan
Love this message, Beejai! Shared it with our readers. God bless you.
Amen, I was born to do this! Spread the love of my Father in Heaven and make Him known amongst the nation’s. Am blessed