1 Samuel 16:12-16: in context

When Samuel comes to anoint the one God has chosen as king, God passes over the older, more impressive brothers and points to David, the youngest, called in from tending sheep. Arise, anoint him, God says, for this is he. Samuel anoints David in the midst of his brothers, and from that day the Spirit of the LORD came upon David. The one God chose was equipped by God's Spirit for the calling to which he was called; the anointing was joined to the giving of the Spirit that would enable him.

The joining of David's anointing to the coming of the Spirit reveals a pattern in how God works: he equips those he calls. David was chosen for a calling far beyond his own resources, to be king over Israel; and God did not call him and leave him to manage in his own strength. From the day of his anointing, the Spirit of the LORD came upon David to equip him for what he was called to. God's call was joined to God's enabling; the one chosen was given the Spirit to fulfill the calling. This is a comfort for all whom God calls to anything. We can feel, rightly, that what God calls us to is beyond our own strength and ability, that we are not adequate in ourselves for the task. And so we are; David was not, in himself, adequate to be king. But God does not call without equipping. The one he chooses, he enables; the calling he gives, he supplies the strength to fulfill. When God filled the craftsmen to build the tabernacle, he gave them his Spirit for the skill required; when he called David to be king, he gave his Spirit to equip him. God's callings come with God's enabling. This frees us from the paralysis of feeling inadequate for what God calls us to. We are inadequate in ourselves; but the question is not whether we are adequate, but whether God equips those he calls, and he does. He who calls you, Paul says, is faithful, who will also do it. The One who calls us to a task is the One who enables us for it, supplying by his Spirit what we lack in ourselves. This calls us to trust God's enabling rather than shrinking from his call because we feel inadequate. When God calls us to something beyond our strength, as he called David to a task beyond his, we need not decline for fear of inadequacy, for God equips those he calls, giving what is needed to fulfill the calling. The Spirit came upon David to equip him for the throne; and God still equips those he calls, so that we may take up what he gives us to do, not in our own adequacy, but trusting the One who calls us to supply what the calling requires. He who calls is faithful, and will do it.

When God calls me to something beyond my own strength and ability, do I shrink from it, feeling inadequate for the task, or can I take hold of the pattern in David's anointing, that the Spirit came upon him to equip him for the calling, trusting that God does not call without equipping, that the One who calls me is faithful to supply by his Spirit what I lack, and taking up what he gives me to do in reliance on his enabling rather than my own adequacy?