Matins Devotion: February 24, 2025

Acts 1:15-26

When a Christian woman is looking for a new job, she typically asks God to lead her where she’s supposed to go. But she only applies for jobs in places she’d like to live. When a Christian man is looking for a wife, he often asks God to provide one for him, but only from the pool of acceptable women the man has already chosen. We couldn’t have God sending us somewhere we don’t live or asking us to marry someone we don’t find attractive. Your will God, within reason.

This is a rather odd and irritating habit that we Christians have. We want God to pick what we do, after we pick it first. But we see a better way when the apostles chose Matthias to replace Judas. They use the wisdom God has given them to establish a criteria for which men will be worthy, men who have been with them since the ministry of John the Baptist and men who witnessed Christ’s resurrection. Then, with two men before them, they cast lots and let God decide.

So, if you truly do want God to pick, then let God pick. If a congregation needs to call a pastor, gather a list of a few names of men you know to be faithful and draw a name out of a hat. If you’re not sure whether to take a new job or stay where you are, and you want God to pick, consider whether you could be an equally faithful Christian in both circumstances, and flip a coin. Or, if you want to pick, then you pick. You became a beloved child of God in the waters of your baptism, when you were clothed in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You’re free. Free to be faithful and free to live without invented anxieties.