C.J. Mahaney shared this quote from Charles Spurgeon in his message at the 2008 Resurgence National Conference.
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, let me refresh your memories with your calling. In looking back, does it not strike you that your calling must have been of Divine origin? The text says, “God called you”—does not your experience prove the same?
How gracious that calling must have been since it came to you from God! It came to you irresistibly and came to you with such personal demonstration! What Grace was here! What was there in you to suggest a motive why God should call you? Oh, Beloved, we can hardly ask you that question without tears rising in our own eyes.
I think, throughout eternity, if we had this problem to solve—“why did He call me”—we should still go on making wrong guesses! We could never arrive at the right conclusion unless we should say, once and for all, “I do not know.” He did as He willed. He will have mercy on whom He will have mercy. He will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. And here, let me say, if these things are so, oh should not this calling of ours tonight evoke our most intense gratitude, our most earnest love? Oh, if He had not called you, where would you have been tonight?
Who am I—what should I have been if the Lord, in mercy, had not stopped me in my mad career!
Read the rest of Spurgeon's sermon, The Special Call and the Unfailing Result.
Listen to the rest of C.J. Mahaney's message, Pastoral Character and Loving People.
