Called Even When You Feel Unqualified

In this powerful episode of The Belief Effect, Nadine Maldonado explores what it truly means to be called by Jesus Christ even when you feel unqualified, uncertain, or afraid.

Many women feel a stirring in their heart, a quiet voice reminding them they were made for more. Doubt, past mistakes, fear, and insecurity can cause us to question whether we are worthy of the assignment God has placed on our life.

In Called Even When You Feel Unqualified, Nadine shares how God often calls the imperfect, the healing, and the becoming, not the people who feel ready. Through personal experiences, biblical truth, and honest encouragement, this episode reminds you that your past does not disqualify you. It prepares you.

You will learn how to recognize when God is calling you into something new, overcome imposter syndrome, trust God when the path does not make sense, and step boldly into the purpose placed on your life.

Whether you feel called to start a business, write a book, speak, lead, create, or simply grow deeper in your faith, this message will encourage you to take the next step with confidence in Christ.

If you have ever wondered:
Why would God choose me
Am I really qualified
Is this truly my calling

This episode will remind you that God equips those He calls.

Your story is not over.
Your calling is not random.
Your obedience matters.

When belief takes root, everything changes.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

This is the belief effect, where healing meets becoming and faith meets transformation. If today spoke to you, share it with someone who needs a reminder that their story isn't over. I'm Nadine Maldonado, and remember, when belief takes root, everything changes. See you in the next episode. Welcome back, beautiful. You're listening to the space where faith meets real life, where the breaking becomes the becoming, and where we talk about the woman you're growing into through Jesus Christ. I'm Nadine Maldonado, your host, and today we're planning a new seed of belief together. Welcome to the Belief Effect. I'm so excited to be back with another episode of the Belief Effect podcast. I am Nadine Maldonado, your host and author of Lemon Seeds. And today we are going to dig deeper on what it is to be called. Throughout this part of my life where I have been guided to write a book and to speak on matters of the heart or things that we go through in life. And not just to speak about it from a place of I experience this, but also to include God's word inside of it. There are so many parts of this that make me think why do you think you can do this? Right. And that thought process simply comes from not because somebody is coming to me and telling me you're not capable of doing this. It's not from a place of being worried about what somebody else is saying or thinking. It's myself. Because I can think of my past, things that I've done in my life, things that made me unqualified, the sin I lived in, the things that I've done that are not very holy. It's almost as if like I am a complete hypocrite to the person I used to be. And glory to God for that, right? We can look at those things and think that is what disqualifies, but really that is what makes us like these perfect servants for God. Because when we are not coming from a place of self-righteousness, of I do everything great, I have it all figured out, all of this kind of stuff, we can see how God has moved and changed us in our lives. And therefore, we can spread his testimony to other people. But even with knowing that, there's still so many times that I get caught up in my own head asking myself, like, nobody's gonna want to read your book. Nobody's gonna want you to speak at their event. Nobody's gonna care about what you have to say. And I have to admit, in a hundred percent of the things that I go into, that thought is always there. It is always like this voice. I always say it's like your evil and good voice, like that evil little voice that just tells me, you are not cut out from this. You are making this all up. You're living in a doolulu land, thinking that this is what God called you, that broken girl into. And the way that I defeat this is simply by getting into action, right? I always say that if something is placed on my heart, if it goes away quickly, then it's probably not from God. It was probably something that felt good like in the moment. But if it keeps playing on my heart, keeps going through my mind, and I'm constantly thinking about it, like ruminating on it and allowing the ideas to expand in my head, then I know that is something that is from God and that I need to step into. And stepping into something that feels completely foreign to you is scary, right? It's just like when I first came into my faith, speaking about God was very foreign to me because prior to that, everything was the universe, the stars and the moons and myself, right? So when I started to change that language, I actually felt like a fraud. I felt, do I truly believe this is God? Did those beliefs that the universe and something other than God is creating this for me or that it's myself? And I felt like a fraud starting to say, no, this was from God. God is telling me, God is guiding me, this is what God is putting on my heart to do. And I know some people probably looked at me like this girl is probably still lost. And to be quite honest, I was, right? And I couldn't feel shameful for being lost in those moments. I couldn't feel doubt of myself because I was trying to figure it out. I think the most beautiful part was that I was willing to figure it out and give glory to God. And as I've gone on this journey of doing all these things that I go into, you know, one of the things I think of a lot is God, like, why me? I am surrounded by very powerful women, very biblically sound women, women that are like live in, well, from what it looks like at least, live into what you are calling us to live as. They speak, they do all these things well. So, God, why, why not them? Why me? Why are you calling me to this? And this is what I've come to realize is that not everybody has the same calling on their life. They may be good, they may be even better at some of the things that you do, but their calling is not to go out and to preach and to speak on massive levels. They're not called to go and lead groups, they're not called to go and minister to people, they're not called to go and share their testimony of very, they're not called to share their testimony very transparently and vulnerably, right? Those individuals, they may not be, they may have great stories to tell, but they may not be in the space to host events, right? They may not know how to do that. But God plants all of these different gifts inside of us, and he says, I created you to do this. So even though you may not speak as clear as them, you may not memorize my scripture the way that they do, you may have sinned last week. Guess what? I still want to use you in the way that I desire to use you. And us as Christians, we have to be willing to step fully into that, even when it feels super uncomfortable. There's many times where if I'm speaking at an event and I know that there's somebody that speaks like way better than me and more biblically sound and all these things that is in front of me, I tend to like want to go into my turtle shell and be like, why don't you just say the words? I'm not meant to say this. You would say this 100% better. But this is when we have to be able to stand in our authority, right? God gives us the platform in whatever that may look. That could be our home, our relationships, our friendships, our workplace, our businesses, right? It can be a group, whatever that is. But the platform that God gives us, we have to be able to stand in full authority and knowing that is our God-given right. God has placed us in that space. So, like, even sitting here on this podcast, I have no notes. I have nothing that I'm reading off of. I don't even know how these words are coming out of my mouth, but they are. Why? Because I'm utilizing the platform that God has given to me. And that is the duty of each single one of us. So I always tell women like, if you feel it's stirring inside your heart, if you feel like you're being called and you're being pulled, please understand that you not doing it is a disobedience to God. Maybe you're still ironing out all the details. And I honestly, for the most part, have never had everything completely ironed out. I've never had it completely planned from A to Z on how something's gonna go. Said, okay, God, this is what I have, this is what I'm coming with. You do the rest. Right? You do the rest, God. I had this opportunity this coming weekend to set up a booth for my book at an event here locally where I live in the Zephyr Hills area. And I have stuff that I can set up for my book lunch, right? But then I'm like, I just don't want this empty table. So what do I fill it with? And God, stop trying to think that you need to fill it with things. You just need to fill it with my word. And the ideas came to me. It wasn't like I had to go spend all this money to have the most perfect booth. I just need to go with what God has given to me. And that is such a blessing. I hope that one day I will get this individual that I'm about to talk to onto the podcast. But she has this space where she does, she has a cafe, right? She says, I don't know, I feel like God is keeping me here for a reason. And I don't necessarily think that it has to do with the cafe anymore. And now that she's listening to that voice, she's hosting an event on May 2nd where I'll also be speaking my testimony at. And now she's using the space the way that God has called her to. So I want you to ask yourself, in the space that I am, what is God asking me to do? And this can be in many different ways, but I really do think that we have a job and a duty to serve in every part of our lives that we are in, right? Especially when we are living a Christ-led life. Right. So when you're at a workplace and maybe you see that people are really stressed out over the workload or not liking how management is handling things or stressed out about home, that is your opportunity to speak life into them, right? They say that our businesses and our jobs are our ministry. I was talking to a friend the other day, and he tells me, yeah, my son told me that we're actually living in sin by working, that God did not create us to work. And I said, no, he has that still misunderstood. Like Jesus was a carpenter, Jesus worked. So therefore, yes, we are supposed to work. But while we work in these things, we are supposed to be ministering and we are supposed to be witnessing and leading people to Christ. And that's the beauty of it. I think of my real estate business and like the same thing. I always say we start talking about how to sell a home or how to buy a home. And I barely know these people. They're a lead that I got off of social media, or maybe they came to me from a referral source or from an open house. And by the end of it, we're talking of sending scriptures, praying over their homes, praying over them and their wants and their needs and their desires, right? Like my businesses are my ministry. And again, there is a time where I feel like a fraud in that because for so long, when I first started doing business, I'd say for the first eight years, I would utilize that business as a place to glorify myself and to build my own ego and to say, look at what I can do, when really it's look at what God can do. Right. Like even in me sharing my story, I think my story is beautiful and it has many painful moments and it has many moments that you can connect and relate to, and it shows resilience and it shows power, but that's not me. If I had to do all those things on myself, I would be laid out on the floor, right? I wouldn't be able to do any of that on my own, but because of God, I'm able to do those things. And therefore, the glory doesn't come to me that I'm the strongest person, I'm the most resilient, I'm the most this, that, or the third. No, I am this because of our Lord. I no longer feel like a fraud. I no longer feel as if I am doing something that I'm not supposed to be doing. Yes, does it feel uncomfortable still? Yes. But and if I do have that thought of you're such a fraud, you're you don't really, whatever, you're not cut out for this, look at all the things that you've done in your life, I stop and I say, but no, God made me new. I am a new creature in Christ. So therefore I get to speak differently. The problem would be is if I am given all of these different assignments or thoughts or callings onto my heart, and I decided to go back to past natine ways and glorify myself or do things out of ego or do things simply just to get a fee in return, right? That would be old natine. And it's so if my mind went straight to those things, then I would say, yep, you need to check your heart a little bit. But no, anytime that I get something new within my business or a new introduction, I meet a new person, I just think, God, what are you gonna do with this? I'm so excited, almost like a kid in the candy store. I'm so excited as to what God is gonna do with that relationship. I know this for a fact that what God does, like what God introduces you to right now, may not have a play in your life until much later. Right. I created this course. It was one night, it was like 10 o'clock at night, and I was getting ready to go to sleep and I heard Holy Spirit very like loud in my ear, get up. I have an assignment for you to do. And I'm like, what? And I was like, okay. So I turned on some worship music. I opened up my computer and I started to create this entire course and this entire product. And then it just sat in my computer. I didn't do anything with it, I didn't promote it, I didn't anything. Like everything was done, but I didn't do anything. And it wasn't until nine months, 10 months later that God then gave me an opportunity to present this in front of someone and give me an opportunity to use that to help to grow somebody else's skills. But I had to be obedient in that moment to do it when it made no sense. I had to be obedient in those things. It's just like when I wrote my book, I knew I've always wanted to write a book. A couple of weeks ago, I was at my parents' house and I found all of these letters from the time that I was like, I don't know, 14 years old or something like that. And they were such embarrassing letters. But it was like that was a calling that was on my spirit forever. God just needed to mold me and to fix me and to guide me and how to share it to glorify him and not myself. I have so many more stories of this. Even when I speak to a group of women about Christianity and following God, I could go back to the girl that was like, nope, it's on me. But no, let me tell you how that girl didn't get anywhere. I kept hitting brick wall after brick wall when it was all about me, when I was glorifying myself. And there's stories like this in the Bible. Like right now, I'm in the book of Samuel and I'm learning in the Old Testament about King Saul, David, all in all these things. If you look at Saul's journey, Saul was a dead to himself because of his pride and his ego. God literally took his blessings off of Saul, put them into David, and said, I can't, I don't see you anymore because all you care about is how you look. You want to make sure that you're the best. You want to make sure that you're the one that's being glorified. And I know that my son David over here, he's gonna give it all to me. His confidence and his willingness is inside of me. And so when you see people that are living in this kind of way, like even when the blessings aren't there and they aren't experiencing the blessings or they're in a waiting season, they aren't cursing God or where are you? You've forsaken me. If we know scripture, God has not forsaken us. So they are still giving glory to God. I have this saying in my dining room that said, May I never forget that I need God on my good days just as much as I needed him on the hard days. And it's so true. Every single morning I wake up and I ask God, what are we doing today? And most of the time it makes no sense. I'm like, we're doing that. How's that supposed to make me money, God? How's that supposed to make me pay the light bill? But it always just unfolds and it happens. Right? And so that is my call of obedience. That is me needing to know that I can't live with what makes sense to me. Because if I'm doing what only makes sense to me, then I'm living for myself. But when I'm living for what makes sense to God and how God can see things before I can, God already knows the end. God already knows the outcome, right? And so when we're all stuck in our worries, and I don't know if I can say that, I don't know if I can speak to that group, I don't know if I should do this, God and see where you are, I see where you're going. It's just like in my church. I've been a part of my church for about five years. And just recently I started getting like more involved with just I host a women's group here at my house on Wednesday nights. I do serve the community things with them, but I felt a pull to start doing a little bit more. And I reached out to the church first. Let me backtrack a little bit more because let me tell you how God will set it up for you when you're not willing to just do it yourself, right? If you need a little bit more confidence and you're asking God for that, believe that He will also give that to you. So I had this thought of how I wanted to serve more within the church. I have my idea, my big idea, like the end goal, right? Got to work up to it and I know that. But my goal is I want to help to minister to the women in our church, right? I want to be able to help them to grow through the things that they're going through. But mind you, I'm a little baby right now in this part of my life. So we're doing the women's Bible study at my house where I'm very vocal. I try to help the leaders as much as I can. So I'm doing that. And then I know that in order for me to get to this level of wanting to serve, that I need to also be willing to serve on a day, like on a weekly basis with the church. And there's these classes that we do, and I kept making up excuses like, oh, it's so early in the morning, it's this, that, and the third. On Sunday, they had announced that there was this thing called the disciple track. And it was basically these courses that were available online, they were free to use. I was so excited because I'm still in this consecration of not going on to social media, putting God first, idolizing God before I look to anything else in this world. And so I've put down social media. So I'm like, oh, great, this is awesome. This is in such alignment with what I'm doing in my life right now. So I jump into the course, I complete it within the night. So within five hours, the entire course was done, maybe less. At the end, though, the call to action for us to go through after doing the course was to now be a server in the church, whether it be greeting in our nursery, they have different jobs that you can do. And so this was the call to action afterwards. And I'm like, perfect. So I completed that. But then I got this muster seed of faith that was just blooming inside of me. And it was like, now message them the desire that it is that you have and how you want to serve and help them. And remember, Nadine, these are the things that you have experience in, right? So utilize that. Utilize the experience I've given to you, the spaces I placed you in, so they can see that there's someone here to help. So I boldly emailed one of the pastors in the church and let them know of my big idea. And I haven't heard anything yet, but that's not up to me. When I hear something, it's when I hear something. And it could be a no, it could be a maybe later, it could be an absolute yes, let's do it right now. My only job was to be have the obedience. And God just kept serving it to me. Hello, when are you gonna get it? So when we're called to do something that doesn't make sense to us, it's okay. You can walk timidly. I would recommend to walk with your head held high and so excited for what's to come because we know that what the Lord is going to bring us into is going to be the most beautiful thing ever. I encourage you to walk into it, whether you're scared, you're excited, whatever it is, walk into it knowing that there is going to be a point for it. And if there's not, the door will be closed, and you have to be thankful for that too. I can look at many things in my life, and I won't say that I failed at, right? I won't say that I failed at anything in my life because I was willing to try, and trying is a success. But I can look at many things that I tried and I was like, oh, door closed. And I have to be thankful for those doors being closed as well. I even think of it as me as a single woman. When the door closed on my marriage, and God saved me from my marriage and saved both of us, right, from that marriage. I had to know that I was being created for the space that I am now. Because where I am now, I don't believe that I would have been able to become or do the things that I'm doing now had I still been married, just because of the restrictions and the things that were very hard. I don't think that I could have become this version of me today. I would have still been small, right? So even if you feel like you're in this space of where you're losing, just know that God will restore everything it is to what it's supposed to be. And it will hurt. And you may cry your tears, you may be fearful, you may be all these things. But every day I would just say, God, I give this to you because I can't handle it. So I give this to you, you guide me, you tell me, you do this because if it's me, God, I won't be able to do it. And I allow God to guide me through and through the callings, through the things that make no sense. Like I said, I know they make sense to Him. And this isn't like a space where I just want to preach about myself. Like, really, I'm trying to preach into your soul right now and to give you that courage that maybe you may not have. Maybe you needed to hear this, right? I had a friend that messaged me yesterday. You know, and even in this, even this is a blessing where I didn't feel comfortable doing this before. I didn't have comfort in giving people biblical advice before because I wasn't opening up my Bible, reading it, or living by it. But then I started to do those things, right? Along with all the personal things that I do. And I had this friend that reached out to me basically saying, She's baby, I have this thing on my heart that I need to do. And this is what it's going to require me to do. It doesn't make any sense. And, you know, I'm scared because I'm a single mom. And she's giving me all of these different details. Number one, I was so grateful that the Lord was letting me be used in that because not only have I gone through that, I also have seen the other side of it. And then another thing I was super grateful for is the fact that I had been inside my Bible and I could give her scripture to let her know hey, just so you know, this is already set in the Bible and this is what the outcome was. Right? We had this beautiful conversation and I poured life into her, not just from my own experience. I actually didn't even really talk about my own experience. I just said, this is what I know that God can do. And if you've Like it's coming from God, and if you feel X, Y, Z, then this is what I recommend you do to get clarity and to know. And I always tell people, I probably say this in every podcast what comes from God comes with clarity, not confusion. And in my day, coming from somebody who was so like egotistical and so focused on myself, there were so many parts of my day that were filled with chaos. I gotta do this, I gotta do that. I gotta now it's just no, I have to find ways to serve the Lord throughout my day in my business that allow my business to move forward, that allow it to impact people, and the business will come. And it'll come exactly when it needs to. I'm no longer chasing a check or chasing a number or chasing a status. I'm chasing the life of God, the path that God has for me. And I just say it's one of the most beautiful ways to live. I really do encourage you. And I mean, you can share in the comments on this video or on this podcast that what is it that you feel that the Lord is stirring inside of you? What is it that maybe you are fear fearful of? What is it that you feel that you need to be doing, but you're not doing because of maybe the circumstances that you're in? Then I want you to answer these questions. Number one, what would it feel like if you give complete control to God and you fulfill what his calling on your life is? What would that look like? What would that look like for your family? What would that look like for you? What would that look for the people that you get to serve? What does that type of fulfillment feel like for you? What would you hope in turn to get out of it? This is a big question. Because what most people, especially business owners, I can fall guilty to this. I would say getting the best out of this means that I got paid and I got paid good, right? As a business owner, sometimes my mind goes there. And I'm not going to tell you what the right answer is to that. I'll let you dig into your heart and enjoy your journey while you find that. So, what does that place of fulfillment actually feel like for you? And I also want you to ask yourself if fear, money, and time were not an issue, would you be doing it? Because we have to remember that number one, fear is the spirit of the enemy. God does not call us to live in fear at all. Money is an illusion. It flows in, it flows out. It's actually never-ending if we think about it. It's a never-ending source. And the thought process of having enough or having too little, that's work that you got to do within yourself in your relationship with money. And the Bible gives us a lot of guidance on this. And then time. Remember, God knows no time. What we think takes months and years is a blink of an eye to God. But we can stall our time by simply tackling on all of these hurdles and letting them overtake us and saying, okay, I gotta stop. I'm exhausted. Like when think of the story of David, when David met Goliath and he had to go against him to kill him, essentially, right? To save Israel and take over the Philistines and all of this kind of stuff, right? It says in the Bible, David ran to the line to go fight Goliath. He didn't walk, he didn't tremble in his pants, he didn't say, Oh God, he ran to the assignment that God had put on to him. And so I want to ask you, are you running to the line? Or are you timid inside of your calling? I hope this message empowers you to want to get up and do the thing, start journaling about it, start planning it, start writing it out, start talking to God about it and ask, God, you've placed this inside of me. I've heard it for days, months, years. And God, I just want to know what is it that you want me to do with this? Where do I start and allow Him to grab the pen and guide your writing as to what it is that you are to do with what has been placed inside of you? And then allow God to do the work inside of you to become who you need to become in order to live out what it is he has planned for you. And get ready to impact many, get ready to touch many hearts, get ready to see many faces that say, because you spoke, because you were bold, I can see the other side. This is why we have the Bible, because people spoke and told their stories and their testimonies. Therefore, we can see the other side, but we get to be the living, breathing example of that. So I want to know if you have the empowerment, the belief, the faith inside of you from God that you can do it too. This is the belief effect where healing meets becoming and faith meets transformation. If today spoke to you, share it with someone who needs a reminder that their story isn't over. I'm Nadine Maldonado, and remember when belief takes root, everything changes. See you in the next episode.