03/05/2023
We don't choose our calling but we do choose to obey it. This is my concentration today, and one of my greatest fears in failing Jesus. Will I find joy in serving Him, or experience drudgery in performing a service that was once my calling but has since been supplanted by a new one; one I haven't yet grasped, or made myself submissive to?
I see Moses when I think of this...
“And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, here am I.
Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt. And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.”
Exodus 3:4, 10-12 KJV
Hearing your calling requires listening and waiting on the Lord, but as you have been dutifully performing those things that the Lord has called you to do, did He call you out... and have you missed it?
When I was young and playing sports, the coach would put me into the game. I was so focused on doing well and intensely playing the sport that I heard nothing around me. I didn't hear my parent's loud cheering from the bleachers, and I didn't even hear my coach shouting instructions from the sideline. When play finally stopped, or the coach sent in a replacement for me, he would chide me by saying "didn't you hear me yelling at you?" But of course I hadn't.
We are often this way when we have received a calling from the Lord. We want to do exceptionally at what He has asked of us, and often become so focused on its execution that we fail to hear Him giving us instructions or changing what we should be doing. Seasoned pastors become attuned to God's call... and also His calling them out, but even they can become so caught up in the moment and the task at hand that they miss hearing God yelling "Stand Down!"
We have a tendency to see and hear what we expect, or want, to hear. We take over the reins and instead of being the player we become our own coach. Well, it's hard to teach yourself something that you don't know, and it is the same in faith.
“And the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron, Because ye believed me not, to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them.”
Numbers 20:12 KJV
So when Jesus puts us into the game, that is an opportunity to serve Him, but even in that service we should remain loyal to the team and the head coach. We need to listen for instructions and hear the change of plays that, perhaps, will pull us off the field. To do so we have to put the coach’s will ahead of our own playing and desires... we need to be attuned to the his voice despite what we feel is happening on the field.
Like Moses, we can get so focused on what is happening around us that we take the calling as our primary goal and assume control of it. In fact God is the focus and our calling is just an opportunity to serve Him. Oswald Chambers recognized this as well, and wrote of this when he said:
"If you have received a ministry from the Lord Jesus, you will know that the need is never the call: the need is the opportunity. The call is loyalty to the ministry you received when you were in real touch with Him." - Oswald Chambers
Listening for our Lord's voice in not only the comings of a calling, but also the goings, this realization is paramount in our life of faith. Sometimes God has a hard time getting us to start acting on a call He has given us, but just as often He has a tough time getting us to stop or disengage! We must always listen for His voice and learn to recognize it amidst the din of life... of a calling.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for calling me into your service, and help me to hear your will when you call me. Give me the ability to recognize your voice and to listen for it always. Teach me Lord to be still and know that you are God, and never let me confuse those things you have asked me to do, with you yourself. Holy Father I desire to always be prepared to do whatever you ask of me, but let me be equally ready to stop when you call me back. Help me to be still in the quiet times between your callings as I listen for a new word from you. Jesus, speak to me in the silence and teach me to listen for the Father's whispered will... even as you did.
Father God, I thank you for each opportunity to serve you, but never let me place what you have called me to do above you. Let me always be cognizant that what was once your most righteous calling can become a false god to me if I place it above you. Let me see that a call to serve you is never about myself, but always about you and your will. Open my eyes to the fact that the success in what you have asked of me can present itself by my being humbled, or when it appears to me as unfinished business, or my personal defeat. My success and accomplishment is always subject to your glorification, and when I am less you are always more.
Father, when at last we stand before you in judgement I pray that we will discuss how you were glorified by our submission to your will, and all you called us to do in our lives, not our personal glory and victory in those things that we felt were our accomplishments, and especially not those things we thought we were doing for you, but which had become about ourselves. On that day I pray you see Christ in us, and are pleased with how we adhered to your will and dedicated ourselves to glorifying you in all you called us to do, and to stop doing.
Rich Forbes