Calling All Saints part 5
I really can't stress how important this is: In order to lead a life worthy of your calling, you have to know what your calling is. Which, again, in the broad sense is to love. We were created to be loved by God, and to love one another with that same love. To receive and release the gift of God that we've been given. And in the individual sense, we are called to follow our hearts. To be who we are. To embrace that thing that makes us... us. For me, it's writing. I never feel more at peace than I do when I'm putting words on the page. That's my calling. To love others through my writing. And listen, for a long time I tried to use that gift selfishly. I tried to write for ME. It wasn't until I presented my body as a living sacrifice and put my three T's (time, talent, treasure) to work for God that things started to take off. I never published anything until I started writing Jesus books. Now I've published 8 books. Daddy took the dream that He put in my heart and made it explode. In other words, "...God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him" (Philippians 2:13 NLT). The King James Version says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." The desire AND the power. To will AND to do. The "want to" comes from God and the "ability" comes from God. That's why we say God is more interested in availability than ability. Seemingly every time God ever called anybody to do anything they thought it was too big of a task. Moses stuttered. Gideon was kind of a coward. David was a lowly shepherd. But they were all willing to obey the voice of the Lord. And in Moses's case--I love this--God didn't make him do something he was uncomfortable doing. He gave Moses a mouthpiece. I think this is important. Because I really don't believe God wants us to struggle. I believe He wants us to flow. To rest. I think there's a difference between stretching ourselves--going on a limb because that's where the fruit is--and trying to do something we weren't meant to do. I think the most frustrating thing in the world is trying to make a round peg fit into a square hole. Banging your head against the wall trying to force something to be what it's not meant to be. Trying to act--or, worse yet, trying to make other people act--like someone you're not. Trying to fit into a religious box of some culture's idea of what "holiness" is. We're not called to be someone we're not. We're called to LIVE. And to live is to love. To love is to live. So what we're called to do... is love. Be loved, and love one another. It's that simple. But WE always make it so hard. WE always make it about any and every thing else. We call people to do this and do that. Guys... ministry isn't about telling people what to do. It's about telling people who they are. By telling them who Jesus is! Christ in you the hope of glory is your true identity. Letting Him live His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life in, and through, and as you IS your calling!