Your True Calling
Have you ever considered why the Lord called you to be a child of God? Was
it to become a powerful preacher of the gospel, to be a missionary in a far-off
country or to be a good husband and father or wife and mother? Is your calling
to be a successful business person or an efficient administrator? While these
may be valid pursuits in life in obedience to the calling of God, we need to
look more closely into the Scriptures to identify our true calling.
In my study of the Scriptures, I have discovered at least 41 calls that
apply to the lives of believers.
Consider, for example, that we are called out
of darkness into His marvelous light (see 1 Pet. 2:9) or that we are called to
be saints (see Rom. 1:7).
But not one of these 41 calls is our primary call. When God created Adam
there were no churches to pastor, no heathen to preach the gospel to and no
businesses or offices to manage. The primary reason God created Adam was to
fulfill His desire for a family with whom He could enjoy sweet communion. His
first priority is the same today as then: to enjoy His children in a love
relationship.
Jesus declared, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My
Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him"
(John 14:23, NKJV).
Our primary calling is our destiny to enjoy relationship with God, not to
work for Him. The work God gave Adam to do was to have dominion over the earth.
He was in charge of taking care of the place where he would live with his
descendants and where God would come to walk with him and commune with him.
God's desire for believers is to cultivate a love relationship with each of
us. In the context of that relationship He will then give us specific tasks to
do. Yet the tasks should never diminish the priority of relationship with Him.
Of course, God has ordained that the church, the body of Christ in the
earth, serve one another as we serve God. But we must be careful to prioritize
our calling the way God does and not according to man's perspective. God
intends that our service to the body of Christ and to lost humanity proceed out
of relationship with Himself. That relationship of worship - the creature to
the Creator, the redeemed to the Redeemer - will motivate us to serve out of a
heart of love for God.
I am convinced that whatever God does to advance His purpose on the earth
is born out of a worshiping people. When the woman at the well asked Jesus
questions about worship, He responded, "The hour is coming, and now is,
when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the
Father is seeking such to worship Him" (John 4:23).
It was the woman's question and Jesus' answer that led me to seek God and
search the Scriptures in order to understand what Jesus meant by worship in
"spirit and truth." God seeks worshipers who will cultivate a love
relationship with Him. He values our relationship with Him more than anything
we can or will ever do for Him. We can show Him that we value it as well by
laying hold of our primary calling to enjoy and worship Him.
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. WESTMINSTER CATHECHISM
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