“God doesn’t call the equipped. He equips the called.”
This is a popular saying among Christians that, like most popular sayings, is both true and not true. It’s true in the sense that God has a generous track record of calling unlikely, untrained individuals. Shepherds, prostitutes, and unlearned fishermen have all occupied significant roles in the story of God.
However, God also has a track record of calling very equipped people. Moses was raised in a palace under the leadership influence of Pharaoh. The prophet Elisha was discipled by the great prophet Elijah. The apostle Paul was an expert in the Law, having studied and trained in it since childhood. And Bezalel, Oholiab, and the other builders of the tabernacle were “skilled,” possessing all the “wisdom and understanding to know how to do all the work” (Exodus 36:1).
These different stories capture the paradox of calling, which consists of two seemingly conflicting truths:
On the one hand, God always provides what we need for the task. Whether it’s talent, training, or a handful of loaves and fish, God’s provision is sufficient for His purposes. We can trust this to be true, and it should instill us with confidence and peace.
On the other hand, we are not sufficient on our own. Moses was trained to be a leader, but he could not summon down plagues. Paul knew the Law, but he relied on the Holy Spirit to deliver understanding. And although the artisans possessed both the talent and the instructions to build the tabernacle, there was nevertheless a lot they didn’t know. They didn’t know what the cherubim should look like. They didn’t know the precise designs of the curtains. They were given a rough sketch, a partial vision, and then expected to construct the rest in faith.
That is the tension of calling. God provides us with more than enough (v.7), but not so much as to free us from dependence on Him. The secret to managing this tension is guarding the focus of our call, which is Christ alone. When we make our calling about us, we swing between insecurity and pride; between fears about our insufficiency, and a greedy clamoring for fame. But when we remember our calling is about Christ, both our inabilities and abilities are granted an appropriate amount of weight.
We see this balance in the building of the tabernacle: skilled workers, equipped with enough, relying on God for the rest of the vision, and doing it all for the glory of God. They had what they needed, but they never stopped needing God. Our own callings should look the same. We can step into God’s purpose, radiating confidence, while humbly pointing others to the source of it: our all-sufficient Savior.
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40 thoughts on "Building the Tabernacle"
Amen. All sufficient God meets me, equips me, guides, and draws me.
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I love how Exodus 36:2 says, ‘And Moses called Bezalel and Oholiab and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose hearts stirred him up TO COME TO DO THE WORK’ (emphases mine). When the Lord gives us skills, He is the One that has to stir our hearts to actually DO THE WORK. If we’re DOING THE WORK, praise God for His grace in stirring our hearts to do so and for giving us the opportunity. If we refuse to DO THE WORK, God grant us grace in stirring our hearts to get to it OR to get back to it when (not if) You give us the opportunity again.
I wonder what these craftsmen did in Egypt. Did they build intricate temples of worship there? Did the architecture of Egypt reflect their labor and skill? Or were they delegated to just make bricks with no straw like all the other Israelites (Exodus 5:7-8)? If so, they weren’t able to utilize their God-given skill, intelligence, knowledge, and craftsmanship (Exodus 35:31) until they were where God wanted them to be.
I seriously need to remember this everyday at school. I’m there to help kids but it’s God….not me.
Amen, this was a great reminder for me.
I needed this reminder today as I head back to school and prepare for the year ahead. He has equipped me, the areas I struggle are areas that I need to practice relying on Him.
We always need God each and every day!
Whoa, this devotional was exactly what I needed today. Thank you!
@Saile praying for your husband this husband!
I constantly struggle to fully seek God at all times. I’ve said this before but I struggle being single and feel like I’m in a season of loneliness. I have felt the calling to be a mother since I was a little girl and I often fear that it will not happen for me. As a single girl I find so much anxiety in dating because I have been hurt in the past. Sometimes I feel like this calling to be a wife and a mother is torture because as much as I want it deep in my heart I often wonder if it will ever happen for me.
@Saile praying for your husband this husband!
Kelly NEO. It has been a while. I think of Victoria E and her new child often and wonder how they are.
@JenniferLovesJesus Thank you so much for including me in your prayer this weekend… it meant the world to me to feel SEEN!! Much love!! ❤️
Heidi I read to the end and I’m sure many others did as well. Praying for you and Ryan to have wisdom regarding next steps. Praying that God will supply all your needs according to His riches in Glory! Praying for other requests as well♥️
What stood out to me and I wrote down to stick on my wall is “God provides us with more than enough (v.7), but not so much as to free us from dependence on Him”. The Lord will never bring us to that place of being on our own. Amen. The Lord called Paul (an equipped Pharisee) to preach to the Gentiles. And He called Peter, an fisherman who doesn’t know laws, to come preach to the Jews and all. He called them to opposite direction of what they’re good at, to depend on Him. This is such a signature move of God. I personally was terrified of public speaking and once God called me to say yes to that, to put myself into the unknown, embracing the possibility of being embarrassed and stuff, reluctantly I did. I was shaking going up stage and then it wasn’t so bad, I didn’t stammer or stare into space or anything thank God. When it was finished, people came up to me saying it was good. I was like, wow, that was unbelievable, I thought I was horrible lol. So you see, all this time, I was focused on myself and my image (swinging on the chandelier of insecurities, pride and fears here). So to manage the tension to focus on HIM alone.
@Lexi B, praying for your contract and for good people to be hired by you. You got this.
@Heidi, praying for you, your husband Ryan and your parents. One day at a time Heidi. It is gonna be all right.
Gobsmacked by She, AIMEE D, who wrote this morning. (August 15, 2022 at 6:17 am)
“Father let me always rise to Your calling in my life and rest in Your plan. In Jesus name, Amen”
Profound. Powerful. Poetic. I stand rightfully accused & called to relinquish self-seeking. To let the Lord lead with His thing. Ditch my “grabbing” & trust His grace. So help me God. And, May I humbly seek Your reassuring presence & receive Your divine intervention. High five to Aimee D. for crystallizing the message. “And in case no one has told you today, Aimee, God is mighty in you!” (Jess Connolly, Instagram).
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CRISTINA- 100% you may do that… what a gift you are thank you!!
RHONDA J- of course I’ll pray for your niece.. and her to be surrounded by His presence and goodness in unexpected places.
LEXI B- thank you… :) That’s so great about the contract! Praying God to fill you with a Spirit of wisdom in the way you continue moving forward and making decisions :)
ALL YA’LL-
Thank you for being such a supportive community. As I’ve said before, this whole seminary thing is one giant act of obedience to a new place He’s called us into. I come from a clinical background and the way I did undergrad/grad school the first time was just so different in what was required of me and how I was successful. So the enemy is using that against me for sure. Praying for courage to keep stepping where He’s leading.
@JLJ I just love what you wrote and have needed and repeated this-
“I pray for patience and steadfastness, strength in my weakness, comfort in distress, and the will to keep fighting. In obedience and contentment, I face this day. Lord, keep my heart soft and focused on You. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
@Heidi- prayers said for your husband and you! I admire your steadfast faith, to look to the Lord for provision and guidance. I think finances are so hard (for men especially) to give up that responsibility to the Lord and depend on Him. It goes against everything that society teaches us from such a young age. Praying for your niece as well, if you could also pray for my niece also, she is still caught in satan’s world and only 2.
@Tracy- Thank you for sharing with us this journey you are on, hold fast.
I too love the line “When we make our calling about us, we swing between insecurity and pride. Between fear about our insufficiency and a greedy clamoring for fame.” I see this as I serve the homeless on Friday nights. I find myself telling people I do it, am I bragging? Yet when I’m there I sometimes feel very insecure about how to act and what to say. I need to give it to God and use His power to do His work. I am the hands and feet, but it’s not for me to boast and be proud of or to be a Super Christian, it is to bring people to Jesus! I am slowly beginning to love people! I am a very outgoing person, but as we get older we can become lost in the annoyance and pettiness that prevail around us and begin to have less desire to be around them. Now I am becoming the “hugger” and the engaging person I used to be before tarnished with life, lol. It feels good. Being in a small group, and hearing all the different and varied trials and lessons from other women is so helpful (and here too!) in learning empathy and non-judgment understanding for others. I have always loved learning other people’s stories, but now I yearn to give them Jesus! I love how we are always growing in our walk when we WANT to learn and grow and read the Word and lean into OUR FATHER! Our next small group is going to be focused on the Holy Spirit. It is a study by Ann Graham Watts. I am excited! Also, a friend is going to start a chronic pain group, and how to lean into God to help us cope. This I am familiar with!! I have had chronic pain for 18 years THIS month!! Long journey. My dad has dealt with pain from RA for over 20 years or more. You don’t really understand it until you have it. Also, being a Restorative Health Trainer I have worked with countless people that suffer from lots of conditions and ailments. There is a movement right now of churches that belief in total healing IF you believe it and claim it, well, I don’t see it like that. We will endure suffering on this earth, but we have strength in the triune to preserve and overcome, and it is not an easy feat, but only through Him. I hope we can teach this class with Godly wisdom. Prayers appreciated!! Did I tell ya’ll my husband got baptized a couple of Sundays ago!? It was such a joy! You guys have a blessed week and see ya tomorrow!
Todays reading and devotion really struck a cord with me, especially this: “That is the tension of calling. God provides us with more than enough (v.7), but not so much as to free us from dependence on Him. The secret to managing this tension is guarding the focus of our call, which is Christ alone. When we make our calling about us, we swing between insecurity and pride; between fears about our insufficiency, and a greedy clamoring for fame. But when we remember our calling is about Christ, both our inabilities and abilities are granted an appropriate amount of weight.”
I am in a season of utter dependence on him. I’m three months into my business and things are going well. There are hard days of course. Since I am in the building stage, I’m not making the money I am used to with my old 9-5. But is is enough.
Heidi, I can relate to what you said- hearing the thoughts from the enemy that you are wasting your money, and that you would fail…I am convinced he just uses the same script to discourage us. I will pray for you as you start seminary school (so cool!), your husband for wisdom regarding his business and whether or not he needs to look for a 9-5.
If y’all could pray: I got a big contract for my company through our states regional center, which works with people with developmental disabilties. According to my friend, who’s vendored with them for a while, with that contract I am going to start getting an influx of clients. God has let me know that I will need to think about hiring people soon. Prayer for wisdom as I take on the possiblity of hiring someone. I have no idea what I am doing, lol
This devotional and all your comments brought the Chris Tomlin song to mind. “All of you is more than enough for all of me
For every thirst and every need
You satisfy me with Your love
And all I have in You is more than enough.”
God has what we need. It’s more than enough. This keeps on popping up in my devotional or any screen time. I need not be consumed by the World. God has everything I need and it is more than enough. I wake up and savor this time with God. Looking to him for strength and guidance. He has what I need. I may not be equipped. But I am called. And I am fully trusting that God is doing his best work for me and in me. Day by day.
Heidi, I have you and Ryan on my list that I see each morning as I sit down to study. May I lift you up in my Church group?
Sharon says it all in her last sentence, “We can step into God’s purpose, radiating confidence, while humbly pointing others to the source of it: our all-sufficient Savior.” How we come across to others really does matter. If you go around with a frown on your face all the time or are negative all the time people don’t want to be around you. We need to smile, and show that Christ is in our life and that we love the idea of it.
Be blessed and be positive and smile for Christ today, sisters.
Per Sharon’s point, Maybe we should change the quote to “God doesn’t call the equipped. He equipps the called and feeds them daily with guidance and provision”. 
As I’m reading all the comments I’m listening to Christian music. I’ve already heard several songs that we had in Tanner’s service. I could actually listen and not fall apart. Progress…Although yesterday I fell apart making egg salad and listening to music. It’s baby steps…
God provided me with the strength, courage, and perseverance to take care of my son. I did it for 33 years. Without God’s faithful help and guidance I could not have made it through. The goodness of God has provided me with all I need and more. I’m always so very thankful.
Prayers Heidi.
Jennifer Loves Jesus thank you for your comment! So good.
So like many of you, the comment about the “the tention in God’s calling…” was a big one for me. I’ll be starting my first semester of seminary in a couple of weeks and I’ve been battling a lot of thoughts telling me You’re not equipped for this/your wasting time and money to just go fail. Grateful for a man who loves and supports me through these moments of feeling so inadequate.
But I think the biggest question mark at the moment is financial. I am going to continue to work part time 3 days a week so that I can pick my kids up from preschool/elementary school in the afternoons. My husband has been the majority financial contributor to our family, but that has shifted in the last few months. He owns his own agency and through no fault of his own, work has just stopped coming in… and when new clients do come in, it again is through nothing he’s done, it’s a “random” thing that pays out well and then is gone. He has been really wise in being able to see God‘s hand in all of it and recognizing God is working hard to really teach us that our finances come directly from His hand and He holds the right to decide how he wants it to reach us. For a majority of our life it has been through our jobs but we feel like He is over and over and over again interrupting that plan and wanting to teach a different level of dependence on Him.
To put it all plainly, we don’t know if my husband should completely shut down his agency and go get a full-time 9-to-5 job. For a while now we have been gratefully and joyfully financially supporting my parents and last week we had to call and let them know that while we believe that God will continue to provide for them, for right now it cannot be through us. We have lived in financial excess for years now and it’s just not the situation anymore. With the added expenses of seminary and my youngest starting preschool, we just can’t make it work. My dad is a retired pastor and they have no fear in any of this and fully know that God is going to continue to provide for them. Their home is fully paid for and their expenses are not outrageous thankfully. But.. So much feels up in the air right now and it’s frightening. I don’t even know necessarily what to pray for other than wisdom end guidance and courage. This is a lot! I don’t even know if anyone will read this, but I do pray that if you have made it through to the end of this post, would you please bring my husband Ryan and I before our collective heavenly father that we could have some confirmation and what we’re doing what he wants to bless.
Thanks for the continued interest in my niece :) Your comments are timely- she’s been doing really well until this weekend when she decided it would be ok to have a couple drinks… she’s 5 months sober (from drugs) as of yesterday (Sunday) which is so huge and we are so proud of her… Alcohol hasn’t really ever been an “addictive vice” for her which is why she didn’t feel it would be a bad idea. The issue her dad and I are bringing up is that it lowers her inhibitions to make choices she wouldn’t make if sober (ie- possibly drugs again). Not to mention, her brain is wired to do all or nothing. Having a couple drinks over the course of an evening isn’t a option for her – it’s either none or drink until your out of control. A huge praise is that she came to a lot of this conclusion herself after getting drunk on Friday. We are super encouraged by the fact that she could come to that conclusion. At the same time we feel like she is on a slippery slope with some of this and prayers for wisdom and encouragement and godly knowledge as well as the courage to live it out I think are really necessary in her life right now.
Thank y’all for loving a girl you don’t even know and fighting for her through Spiritual means… your prayers are not in vain and I know are heard by our Father…❤️
Each day I approach God with an open mind and a willing heart. I lay down my own strength and rely on His. Looking to Him first widens my view and my ability to love others better. Nothing on this earth should bind me if I have faith in Jesus. He came as the better sacrifice so that I could walk in freedom to approach God freely and without fear. Where once we were wandering sheep, we are now carried on the shoulders of the Shepherd. None of our suffering is equal to His. Sometimes choosing joy and praising God is the opposite of what makes sense. When life is hard, praise is hard. Joy is hard to muster. But like a grape crushed by pressure to produce sweet wine, I have learned to let go and let God bring me through the hardest times. His sweetness is always there for me. I have learned to offer a sacrifice of praise to God because I love Him. Because He first loved me. I trust my sovereign Lord because I believe He has everything under control. He works all things for my good because I love Him and am called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). No amount of crushing will separate me from Him. So I pray for patience and steadfastness, strength in my weakness, comfort in distress, and the will to keep fighting. In obedience and contentment I face this day. Lord, keep my heart soft and focused on You. In Jesus’ name, amen.
“When we make our calling about us, we swing between insecurity and pride. Between fear about our insufficiency and a greedy clamoring for fame.” I love it when a devotional hits me like a ton of bricks. I’m currently going through a situation where I’m stepping into these two states, and it’s been on my mind all week, praying and reflecting about it. And it’s this— I’m making it about me. Isn’t it amazing how, in the daily grind of life, we can loose sight of this simple yet all powerful fact? it is ALL about Christ.
Thanks for refreshing our minds with our dear friends’ names… Taylor has also been coming to mind, as well as Heidi’s niece…( who was in rehab) Lifting us all to Jesus, this morning… thanks for SRT, a great vehicle for connection, instruction in righteousness, and ever pointing us to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit our counselor, and the Beauty, Goodness, and Truth of Gods Word!
Dependence and obedience – how many times do I fail at these? Thank you, Lord, for Your patience.
KELLY (NEO) – thank you for your list of those we miss this morning! I had planned to post one almost identical – praying all are okay. Also thinking about LYNNE FROM AL.
God desires for us to have a constant and natural need and desire to lean into Him and His guidance. He promises to provide for us, but never leaves us fully sufficient so we have to keep returning to Him for strength and wisdom. I guess there is a peace in knowing we don’t have to do it all alone. I think it’s amazing He was able to give them such detailed instructions and as they acted in faith, they were able to carry it out. Where am I missing this concept in my life? Where am I trying to control the details that are already laid out perfectly before me?
I see such a beautiful picture of the church at work in this passage as the people of Israel begin to build the place where they will worship God. God equipped the skilled workers by giving them the wisdom, understanding, and skill to do the work. The workers obeyed the word of the Lord and did all He had commanded. Every skilled person in whose heart the Lord had placed wisdom, all whose hearts moved them, came to the work and did it. The people continued to bring their freewill offerings morning after morning. The materials were sufficient for them to do all the work. There was more than enough.
In Ephesians 2:20, Paul writes, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” He also wrote in 2 Corinthians 9:6-8, “The point is this: whoever does sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever does bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you my abound in every good work.”
In the church, we have people who are called to do the work. Some are skilled at it, others aren’t. Both those who have been skilled and trained and those who haven’t, should obey the calling of God in their life in faith and trust. They should continue to converse with God and with trusted advisors to see where the Lord is leading them as they lead others. Those who have not been called to lead or do the work should give toward the work or help support their leaders in every way they possibly can. This will help our churches to have what is needed. We all must remember, again, that everything we have had come from God, whether it is wisdom, knowledge, skill, or material wealth. Everything we have been given is to be used for God’s glory and to advance His kingdom.
Father let me always rise to Your calling in my life and rest in Your plan. In Jesus name, Amen
“God provides us with more than enough BUT not so much as to free us from him.”
In such a good and loving way so that we rely on him and keep our focus on Jesus. Love this!
“God provides us with more than enough BUT not so much as to free us from him.” In such a good and loving way so that we rely on him and keep our focus on Jesus.
Much needed this morning as I head off to work! Even that calling is not about me!!
Loved this passage this morning as my pastor just spoke about this topic of being dependent on God and how we often forget that God provides all that we need as long as we continue to depend on him. I think for me it’s understanding the balance of knowing that yes I am talented but I only know things up to a certain point and that God provides the rest.
“That is the tension of calling. God provides us with more than enough (v.7), but not so much as to free us from dependence on Him.”
REMEMBERING the One who gave me the very breath in my lungs should be easy. Yet I am quick to believe anything I accomplish is from my own resources and abilities. Oh how quickly the pride of life sneeks in.
CHURCHMOUSE, ERB, VICTORIA E, FOSTER MAMA, ANGIE, SKYLER HILTON, BROOKE P – sending hugs to you. Praying you are well.