Be Able, Be Willing – Or Be Both – To Be Used By God For His Glory

Word-Of-The-Day:  ‘(32) David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” (33) Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a young man, and he has been a warrior from his youth.”’ (1 Samuel 17:32-33); ‘(2) <God said to Jonah,> “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.” (3) But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.’ (Jonah 1:2-3)

Some of you have heard the wise old saying about ‘able and willing’ – ‘I will continue to do ‘x’ as long as I’m able and willing; if I lose either the ability or the willingness, I’ll stop‘.  If you draw a square, draw an X-axis through the middle horizontally for ‘Ability’ and a Y-axis through the middle vertically for ‘Willingness’.  The top left square would be ‘Willing, Not Able’, the top right square would be ‘Willing and Able’, the bottom left square would be ‘Not Willing, Not Able’ and the bottom right square would be ‘Able, Not Willing’.  (Don’t worry, I’ve placed the drawing as the picture for today’s post for your visual edification.) 

No matter what we do, all of us have efforts that fall into one of these four categories.  I’m willing but not able to do major car repairs as I don’t have the working knowledge (and I want my cars to run after repairs); I’m able but not willing to go shopping at the mall (if the mall repurposed into a big indoor shooting range, this would change into the ‘willing and able’ category).  I have no ability or willingness to go skydiving now (I was willing when I was younger, but now being a senior and a full figured fellow with creaky joints…that’s a no for me, dawg). 

The best place to be is to be both able and willing.  I am able and willing to help our kids out financially when they need definitive help; I pray that I do not lose the ability to do so (although in retirement, with inflation and other events beyond our control, that becomes a possibility), or become unwilling due to something they do that causes me to be hesitant.  For teaching God’s Word, I am always able and willing, and I pray I never lose either the ability or the willingness to do so.  It is painful to me when an outside influence (like illness or natural disaster) interferes with what I am able and willing to do. 

The best example of ‘Able but Not Willing’ is, of course, Jonah.  Jonah was a righteous man, and is mentioned by Jesus several times in the Gospels about his evangelism in Nineveh.  As we know, however, Jonah was an unwilling participant to go to Nineveh to preach as he had a personal distrust and hatred for the Ninevites, and when God said, ‘go east’, Jonah hopped on a boat going west.  Jonah was known as a prophet of the Lord to Kings Amaziah and Azariah of Judah (2 Kings 14:25) so he had the ability to speak God’s Word, but his unwillingness to use his gift of prophecy put him at odds with God. 

When Jonah decided not to obey God, God had a choice; either let Jonah go and have someone else go, or turn Jonah around and override Jonah’s unwillingness and send him anyway.  We know God did the latter and although Jonah was not a happy camper (figurately and literally), he went and brought the Word of the Lord to Nineveh, and the people repented.

The best example of ‘Willing but Not Able’ is David, as a very young boy; full of the Spirit and one who trusted God.  David was no match in a fight with any normal-sized adult male, let alone a 9-foot-tall behemoth like Goliath.  If it was a fist fight, Goliath would have reached down, grabbed David by the head, and let David tire himself out swinging his arms in vain.  Goliath trained his entire life to be a soldier, and likely knew the ‘martial arts’ of his day as well as routinely practicing his spear throwing and sword thrusting, and using his shield as both a defensive and offensive weapon.  David never wore any military garb and only knew how to fight off animals. 

But David had in him confidence; confidence in not only himself but the confidence that the Lord would be with him.  David had the gift of leadership and used it, ‘I’ll go fight Goliath, and set the example what can be done when you have Faith’ is what he said by his deeds.  David then went out, with only 5 stones and his sling, and with His Faith that God would give him good aim and the perfect shot, he dropped Goliath like yesterday’s garbage.  Later, David became that trained warrior, and now having the ability and willingness to effectively lead men into battle, became the King of Israel.

God can use anyone, whether they are willing or not, or whether they have the ability or not.  The Spiritual Gifts a Christian receives means that person now has the ability to do what Jesus has called them to do.  If there is an unwillingness to use that gift (like Jonah), it puts one at odds with God.  God can make it a point that he will have that person use that gift for His purpose whether they are willing or not (like Jonah).  It is better to be willing to use your abilities for the purposes God has laid out.  When there is willingness but no ability, God can use that as well (like David). 

We are sometimes placed in situations where we don’t know what to do, but know we have to do something, and want to accomplish the task at hand.  I’ve often found there are lessons that I have been willing to teach, but the ability to understand what needed to be said wasn’t there; but when class starts, the Holy Spirit comes and provides the words that needed spoken, and the lessons needing covered are taught.  Be prudent and in prayer for the Lord to provide His ability to your willingness, and to provide His willingness to your ability!