Finding Our Calling

Read: Ephesians 4:1-16

A continuing struggle as we seek to follow Christ is trying to find our calling in life. While we often think in terms of occupation and location, perhaps a more important issue is one of character - the being that undergirds doing. "Lord, who do You want me to be?"

In Ephesians 4, Paul wrote, "I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called" (v.1). He followed this with three "be's," as one translation renders it: be humble, be gentle, be patient, "bearing with one another in love" (v.2 NIV). Paul wrote this from prison, a difficult place where he continued to live out his calling from God.

Oswald Chambers said: "Consecration is not the giving over of the calling in life to God, but the separation from all other callings and the giving over of ourselves to God, letting His providence place us where He will - in business, or law, or science; in workshop, in politics, or in drudgery. We are to be there working according to the laws and principles of the Kingdom of God."

When we are the right people before God, we can do whatever task He sends, wherever He puts us. In so doing, we discover and affirm His calling for us.

- David McCasland

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It's not what you do but who you are that's most important.

A Passion for People

Read: 2 Corinthians 5:9-21

"He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." -2 Corinthians 5:15

Mark Twain said, "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

This quote appears on a Web site intended to help people discover what they are passionate about so they can live with greater significance.

The apostle Paul's passion in life was largely driven by concern for the eternal destiny of others. In 2 Corinthians 5, he names three things that fueled his passion. First, he recognized that he was accountable to Christ for his service and wanted to give a good accounting at the judgement seat of Christ (vv.9-10). Second, Paul was driven by Christ's love and a desire that others would know the love that he had experienced. In verse 14 he wrote, "For the love of Christ compels us." Finally, he understood that a lost and dying world needs the Savior (v.20).

What are you passionate about? Paul's passion for people was fueled by the love of Christ - and ours should be as well. Let's apply Twain's words of challenge to our efforts in outreach: "Sail away from the safe harbor." Share the love of Christ with someone today.

-Bill Crowder

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Talking to Christ about others helps us talk to others about Christ.

Weekly Devotionals

Hi there. I get so much out of these devotionals, I just wanted to share them with everyone who cares to read them. I was going to do a daily devotional, but I knew I would get busy and miss a day every now and then. So weekly it is. If you get anything out of them yourself, please feel free to share them with whomever you feel could use a lift in their day, or their week. I get this little devotional called "Our Daily Bread", as well as a weekly devotional from a prayer group I am a part of at work. I am always able to take something away from it, and use it in some part of my life. I hope you can too. If you have any comments, anything you want to share, a devotional that has affected your life in some way, I would love to hear about it. Thank you for taking the time to share this with me.

"Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved." -Acts 4:12

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." -Psalm 90:12