There Is No List of Qualifications

We live in a world where you need to meet certain standards, certain criteria, in order to do most things. When applying for a job, the prospective employer looks over your resume to see if your education, background, and experiences qualify you for the position for which you applied. To be approved for a loan you need to be qualified by the lender, meaning you meet their requirements for extending you credit. In track and field, you often only qualify for championship events by meeting certain time, height or distance thresholds. 

If you do not have an accounting degree, you likely are not qualified to be an accountant. If you’ve filed bankruptcy or been delinquent on paying your bills, you might not qualify for a new car loan. If you run the 100 meter dash and your fastest time is 10.88 while the time required to qualify for the national championship meet is 10.50, you will be watching the track meet on television rather than participating in it. In each of those cases, the individual is the qualifier. It is you who has control over whether you meet the criteria required. You must do something, or not do something, in order to qualify.  

Whereas not meeting certain standards, certain criteria, disqualifies us from doing certain things in daily life, in God’s economy it is Jesus who is the qualifier, not the individual, and in and through Him we can do things that one our own are impossible (Philippians 4:13). When it comes to Jesus, the goal is not transformation, the goal is a relationship with Him. And through that relationship, becoming more like Jesus (transformation), begins to happen.

It is Jesus who gives you supernatural abilities; allowing you to do things otherwise impossible. You might have heard the phrase, naturally supernatural; meaning you can be yourself and God shows up and does some amazing things in and through you. Since you are qualified because of Jesus, you be uniquely yourself, and God can and will use you to pave the way for people to actually experience His loving, healing, and transforming presence.

In 2 Peter 1:3-4 we read this: “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

I am not big on clichés, but this one says in eighteen words what I took an entire post to say: God doesn’t call the qualified, doesn’t call the equipped, instead, He qualifies, He equips, those whom He calls.

So, unlike the world around you that gives you a list of qualifications needed before you can begin, Jesus simply says to you what He said to Peter, as Peter stood on the edge of the boat in that dark and stormy night on the Sea of Galilee – “Come.” (Now I encourage you to read this story in its entirety, found in Matthew 14:22-33.)

Author’s note: “The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water” is an oil on canvas painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1907, housed in a collection at the Des Moines Art Center (USA). The image is in the public domain.