There is a phrase I used to hear a lot in my youth that I haven’t heard for many years. It is, “ready, willing and able”. It applies to taking on any task from the simplest to the seemingly impossible. In a way, it is similar to that sometimes dangerous response, “Here I am, send me.” (Isaiah 6:8) As a matter of fact, I believe it should be the obedient response of every true child of God.
Being “ready” makes it possible for us to take immediate action. There is a couple I know who have a wonderful large family. They teach their children that obedience requires immediate action. If they put off what they are told to do, it is not being obedient even if they truly intend to get to it later. God expects His children to respond quickly to the prompting of His Holy Spirit within us. If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you know when God is prompting you to do something and you also know that any attempt to put it off until later is met with increased pressure to do it now. I can’t point to a particular moment in my life that I began to understand that my immediate response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit was always in my best interest, but it has been part of my growth as a Christian.
Being “willing” is very important because it puts us in the right frame of mind or attitude for the task we are asked to perfom. When we begrudgingly obey, even when it is immediate, we miss the whole reason for our obedience. When I maintain a loving personal relationship with God through His Holy Spirit within me, then everything I do will be done because of love – His love for me and my love for Him. I learned that kind of loving relationship from my earthly parents and I’ve found it especially applies to my relationship with God.
Being “able” is not always necessarily when God has a task for us. What God looks for when He has a task that needs to be done is someone who is ready and willing and He will then make sure we are able to do it. Corrie ten Boom wrote about all of the times God gave her strength and courage at just the time she needed them most. She kept her faith through some incredibly stressful situations at the hands of the Germans during World War II. Because of her faithful obedience to God’s will, she miraculously came through that experience alive and able to share her story with countless others.
I am reminded of a Face Book post that showed the photo of a kitten in an obvious position of prayer at a bedside and the caption read, “Lord, I know you said you would not give me more than I can handle; but sometimes I wish you didn’t have so much confidence in me.” I think every Christian has had moments when we could have prayed that prayer. God is good all of the time and if we are ready and willing, He will make us able.