Every day my body reminds me of 2 Cor. 4:16. My outer man is indeed wearing out, but praise God, my inner man is being renewed daily. I am seeing spiritual things more clearly every day. I am also more aware that I am approaching the finish line and I am determined to finish well. My last few posts have reflected this desire not just for me, but also for you.

I concluded last week’s post by making the point that God doesn’t want to make us more useful; He wants to make us His. Today I want to focus on the joy of Acts 20:24: But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish the race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Christ experienced His greatest joy in doing what His Father sent Him to do, and in this simple truth lies a profound lesson for us all:

In a previous article I reminded us that we were created to bring glory to God, and our emphasis should be there and not in our usefulness to Him. Today I want to focus on how we bring Him glory in real, everyday life on planet earth in 2022 and share in Christ’s joy in the process. Jesus answered the question for us when He said, “As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.”

It is a shame that such little emphasis is placed on this these days since a calling gives meaning, purpose, and direction to our lives, and in these difficult days, we need all these more than ever. When our focus is on being used by God, we are asking God to give us something to do that we can do well so we will feel good about what we have done, and God will be pleased. With a calling, He has already told us what to do and He has already equipped us.

We love to quote Romans 8:28 in difficult times, but we usually fail to emphasize the last part: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. If you aren’t seeing God bring good out of everything, perhaps it is because you have ignored your earthly calling. I’m not talking about a special calling to engage in some specific work like becoming a pastor. I’m talking about the calling we all have been given.

Since Paul was God’s chosen apostle to the Church, he is our earthly example. Our general calling is identical to his and his brought him great joy: Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed: and in this I rejoice, yes, I will rejoice (Phil. 1:18). This is your calling. This is your earthly purpose, not being useful to God. This is our assigned role in the difficult days that are upon us. Have you accepted your calling?

It’s way too easy to read something like this and convince ourselves that we are, indeed, fulfilling our calling just because we call ourselves Christians. We love to generalize messages because the more specific we get, the more convicting they get. If Paul is the Church’s model, we need to take his example and his letters seriously. Does your greatest joy come from fulfilling your calling? If not, why not?

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE

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