Called.
“Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.” (Eph 4:1 NLT)
When I read this it made me stop in my tracks and think; is my life worthy of my calling?
Sometimes… or perhaps more often than we’d like to think, we get so caught up in ‘life’ that we forget that we are ‘called’; more than that, we forget we’re “called by God.”
In some daily reading notes the other day I read about this ‘famous’ baseball player (although not famous to me!). He grew up in a rough neighbourhood but knew, from the first time that he held a baseball bat, that he was called to this sport. This remained with him. In fact when various gangs fried to recruit him he rejected their lifestyle because he knew his calling and he remained focused on it. Then, once he made it into a major league team, he stuck with them for his entire career even though he was offered more lucrative deals; it was the team and his calling that occupied him more than money.
How many attitudes, actions, activities etc occupy space in your life which are not worthy of your calling?
We each have our own answer, but no matter what the list may look like it does not mean we are ruined:
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (Is 6:5-8 NLT)
No matter what our age, failures, circumstances or anything else, our most productive days in God’s calling are yet to come. Failure to believe this will verify your doubts to be true… but true only because you have let it be true. We are called of God until our last breath. Even when bound to a chair by ill-health we are still called to live worthy of our calling. Would you not want your epitaph to read, ‘Even his last breath was worthy of his calling’? I do.
“In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.” (Eph 4:1-3 MSG)
When I read this it made me stop in my tracks and think; is my life worthy of my calling?Sometimes… or perhaps more often than we’d like to think, we get so caught up in ‘life’ that we forget that we are ‘called’; more than that, we forget we’re “called by God.”
In some daily reading notes the other day I read about this ‘famous’ baseball player (although not famous to me!). He grew up in a rough neighbourhood but knew, from the first time that he held a baseball bat, that he was called to this sport. This remained with him. In fact when various gangs fried to recruit him he rejected their lifestyle because he knew his calling and he remained focused on it. Then, once he made it into a major league team, he stuck with them for his entire career even though he was offered more lucrative deals; it was the team and his calling that occupied him more than money.
How many attitudes, actions, activities etc occupy space in your life which are not worthy of your calling?
We each have our own answer, but no matter what the list may look like it does not mean we are ruined:
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?”
I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (Is 6:5-8 NLT)
No matter what our age, failures, circumstances or anything else, our most productive days in God’s calling are yet to come. Failure to believe this will verify your doubts to be true… but true only because you have let it be true. We are called of God until our last breath. Even when bound to a chair by ill-health we are still called to live worthy of our calling. Would you not want your epitaph to read, ‘Even his last breath was worthy of his calling’? I do.
“In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.” (Eph 4:1-3 MSG)
-Andrew Carey
posted by Andrew at 9:20 am
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