WHAT IS YOUR CALLING ?

WHAT IS YOUR PASSION? WHAT BREATHES AIR INTO THE LUNGS OF YOUR LIVING?

Perhaps it’s time to conclude the pages of “my” stories, or “my encounters with the Living God” as I refer to them.  My prayer and wish throughout the writings of these true events, is that your heart has been stirred, and your life activated to begin a journey with Jesus of your own.   Years ago I never realized that God designed people to know Him, enjoy Him, and walk through life here on earth “with Him.”   I used to feel He was an abstract unknown…..that it was a religion verses a “relationship.”

I’m passionate about this because it’s a daily delight to know that God is personal and wants to be in a “personal relationship with me,” and with each of us.  But Jesus will never push His way into a life, but waits for you and me to recognize we need Him.   He is Holy and we are not!   We need our sins and waywardness from Him to be dealt with. 

God dealt with it all right – He sent His Son to come and take our sins upon Himself, receive the anger and punishment of God by dying on a cross, and taking that punishment which we individually deserve.  He was buried and three days later rose from the dead, alive forevermore.  He was seen by over 500 people, and then several weeks later ascended into Heaven to be with God the Father.  

That is the “good news!”   Jesus came here to earth to show us what God the Father is like.   Jesus is God……with skin on.   He died the death our sins deserve, and offers us His righteousness (perfection) in its place.

Those are the facts, plain and simple.   Jesus is THE GIFT…..but like all gifts, He needs to be received.   Have you received Him?   Have you received the gift of eternal life?   Because no one can come to the Father except through Jesus.   He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

John 14:6

Not too long ago the thought came to me, “How will I wrap up these stories?”   I carefully used the term wrap up and not “the end,” because each day of living offers opportunities to see God at work in our lives.   But our individual “eye sight” cannot see properly, our vision has been blurred and blinded by that three letter word…..”sin.”   The thrill comes when we decide to respond to God’s promptings in our life and where He works in our circumstances to help us see that we are desperately lost and sold out to going against Him.   If we “admit that” and turn to Him requesting His presence and leadership in our lives, God “instantly” opens our eyes to see Him (with our heart & inner eyesight).

 One particular day last month Romans 14:12 appeared in my reading.

Romans 14:12   “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”

What a startling verse, regardless of whether you believe there is a God or not makes no difference to the truth of this Scripture.   One day we each will be asked by God:   What did you do with my Son, Jesus Christ?

There are only three possible answers: 

1.   Yes, I’ve invited Him to be my own personal Savior
2.   No, I decided that what He did on the cross means nothing to me
3.   No, I feel no need of Him, because I think I’m good enough already

Good enough?   We need to be “perfect” to live with our Creator, and anyone, who is in their right mind, must honestly admit they aren’t perfect. 

We can live each day going about our routines and responsibilities and never sense a deep purpose for living, may I call it “quality living.”   Oh we go through the motions, but without a real zeal for life here or the anticipation of how wonderful it could be to live with our Creator forever.   A forever, with purpose, pleasure, joys, fulfillment, and enthusiasm for living on a new earth, as it was planned in the beginning.  Heaven will not be boring, as some acclaim. 

My mind and heart began to really think about what it will be like for me to stand before Him and give an account of my life?   Jesus is my Savior, so I have no fear of punishment for my sins, because they’ve all been forgiven.  Jesus paid for all my sins (past, present and future).   So they won’t be in God’s ledger of my life, and I can only thank Jesus for that.

But He will review my life and how I lived it here on earth.  God has a plan, a purpose or “calling” for each of our lives; and all that began to marinate in my thinking after reading that verse.

Ephesians 1:18   “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you….”

Ephesians 2:10  For we are God’s handiwork (masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Two thoughts arose in my mind.  What is my calling?   What has God asked me to do?

What a sobering thought, and yet it clarified something for me.   Like you, I want to receive a “well done” from Him and that comes by being faithful to what He has asked me to do.    It clarified it even more, because I will never be compared to anyone else.

So, my heart leapt into a prayer:  Father, help me RECOGNIZE what You may be asking me to do each day, and please give me the strength and enablement to do what You ask.   

He will not ask about things He didn’t ask me to do (like so many of my personal plans and ideas), so that narrows the evaluation down to a simple “Did I do each day what was asked of me?”   

Luke 16:10   “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much…..”

What is your calling? What has God asked you to do?

What is my calling?  What has God asked me to do?

Our “well done” is based on what He has asked us to do….be faithful in the little things…..the everyday, ordinary, insignificant things of life.

My stories are really His stories of how He came near to show me He is real and yearns to be involved in the details of my life……and in your life.

Each day is an opportunity for God to express Himself in and through each of us in such “insignificant, oatmeal-ordinary ways.”  God is so EXTRAORDINARY in both the large and the ordinary.  In the meaningful and in the “macaroni moments” of life.

If you don’t have Him in your life, why not stop right now and extend Him the invitation to come into your life, forgive you for all your sins, and begin a journey with Him that will take you places you never imagined with Him in your daily walk.  He has plans far greater than you could ever imagine.

“But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” 1 Corinthians 1:27

Jesus is EXTRAORDINARY amongst the ORDINARY !

And I love that about Him, don’t you?   We don’t have to do big things, just little things with a big heart for Him.   He’ll make the “mundane magnificent” and the “ordinary extraordinary!”

Oh that we would live our lives in such a way that would produce a “yearning for God” in the lives of others.

What foolish, seemingly insignificant things are you involved in for the Kingdom of God and His glory?