Upward Training

Day 3

Serving God with all your Strength

Living out your calling

                Have you ever been at a retreat or heard a special speaker and were told to stand or raise your hand if you feel that God has called you to be a missionary?  Did you feel that call or did you feel disappointed that God spoke to your friend and not to you? 

Or did you sit there, hoping that God wouldn’t speak to you since you knew that life wasn’t for you?  Substitute pastor or evangelist or music leader or some other professional ministry position for missionary.  Did you feel left out but still relieved that you hadn’t been picked?

                Have you ever been at a retreat or heard a special speaker and were told to stand or raise your hand if you feel that God has called you to be a farmer, doctor, laborer, grocer, etc.?  Never happened?  What if it did?  What do you feel God has called you to be?  In what way has he called you to serve Him?

                Listen to how John the Baptist responded to questions from people in a couple of professions:

Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

¹³ “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.¹⁴ Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”  Luke 3:12-14

            Are you surprised that he didn’t tell them to quit their jobs?  What did he ask of them?  To be honest and to be good tax collectors or soldiers, even though those were hated occupations.

            Did you ever wonder what would happen if everyone was professional clergy?  This passage concerns different functions in the church. 

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.  1 Corinthians 12:15-26

What if we paraphrased this passage?  “Welches cannot say to the grape farmer, “I don’t need you!”  And the teacher can’t say to the tax collector, “I don’t need you!”  And the banker can’t say, “Because I’m not a pastor, I do not belong to the body.”  Just think how impoverished the world would be without musicians and mechanics, lawyers and laborers, farmers and firemen.

What if you were already established in an occupation when you came to Christ?

Were you a slave when you were called? Don’t let it trouble you—although if you can gain your freedom, do so. ²² For the one who was a slave when called to faith in the Lord is the Lord’s freed person; similarly, the one who was free when called is Christ’s slave. ²³ You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of human beings. ²⁴ Brothers and sisters, each person, as responsible to God, should remain in the situation they were in when God called them.                            1 Corinthians 7:21-24

                        This passage seems to indicate both that you are ok if you don’t change and peachy if God calls you to something else.  Either way, the following passage directs us to love God with all our hearts, in whatever situation we find ourselves.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, ²⁴ since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.              Colossians 3:23-24

                        This is a call to excellence in everything.  Let’s be satisfied with nothing less.

Prayer: Reflecting specifically on this devotional, write out a prayer to God. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________