Where do wisdom, patience, and grace come from? What about physical energy? It all comes from God. So when someone calls you with a crisis at 3:00 in the morning and the whole idea of getting out of bed makes you want to cry with frustration because you’re so exhausted, then you need to say, “I can’t come right now, but I will as soon as I can.” Then you hang up and go back to sleep. Are you being a jerk? No, you’re following God’s leading. God’s leading comes in many forms. When He’s withholding grace, energy, and insight, it’s a clear signal that He doesn’t want you getting involved in this particular issue. When someone calls you for advice and your mind is a complete blank, you need to say, “Let me pray about it and I’ll get back to you.” If God then refuses to give you any insight, then clearly you are not the one He wants to speak through at this time. Is this because He thinks you’re useless? Not at all. At some point, we all have to learn how to wrestle through our issues alone with God. Naturally we will try to put off that day as long as possible and running to pastors for quick cures is a good way to do that. But when God is trying to isolate souls, He will render all of their counselors speechless and block them from finding any middleman that they can rely on instead of Him.

It’s so easy for Satan to make you feel like a failure when you can’t help that soul who is crying in your office. Your defense in these situations is to remember whose flock it is: it’s not yours, it’s God’s. He is the only One who has the resources they need. You only have what God places in your hands, and sometimes He just doesn’t want you to play the role of His spokesperson. Sometimes He wants to use someone else, and sometimes He wants to help the soul directly. To serve God well, we must remember how wild He is and be willing to hear unexpected orders. If God calls us onto the field, we go with gusto. But if He benches us and tells us to sit this one out, then that’s what we need to do. It’s not up to you to invent resources for the flock. When someone comes to you with a request, your job is to go to God and ask if there is anything He wants you to pass on to them. If He places something in your hands, great. If He doesn’t, fine. Your job is just to follow His orders.