One negative trait I have seen in many ministers of God is pride. Once God calls and equips them with gifts for the calling, they begin to think that they are special. The opposite is the case, however, because (1 Corinthians 1:27) says that God calls the weak, the foolish, and those that are nought. When God calls you for an assignment, you must be extremely grateful to Him for the privilege of being called and for every single achievement as you walk in your calling because, without Him, you can do nothing (John 15:5).

As I mentioned earlier in this series, I studied people who were called before me and who succeeded in their callings. One of them was Apostle Paul; He was an academic like me before he was called by God. I noticed that Paul was always grateful to God. He wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:18:

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

In Luke 1:46-55, we see how grateful Mary was for being chosen to give birth to our Saviour Jesus Christ and she succeeded in her calling. If you really want to succeed in your calling, then you must be grateful to God always. I don’t know about you, but I can never forget how good God has been to me.

We had just finished a service in a foreign country one day and God really moved in that service, many souls got saved and there were all kinds of miracles. On my way back to the hotel, I discussed the great things that happened in the service with those that were with me. When we arrived, the fellow sitting in the front seat of the car opened the door to get down and as he slammed the door shut, my finger got caught in the door frame. Up until today, I have no idea of how my finger got caught in the doorframe. I cried out in pain and everyone rallied around me saying, “Sorry”. As I went upstairs, I asked God, “Lord, why did you let this happen to me?” He said, “You were talking about all the great things I did in the service and you didn’t even turn to Me to say, ‘Thank you Lord.’” I realised my error, apologised and thanked Him. By the time I got to my room, the pain had completely disappeared.

God is watching to see if you will be grateful or not. He will warn you once or twice if you are ungrateful. If you refuse to heed His warnings, He will withdraw His support and that will be dangerous.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.