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.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
