Tag Archives: Relationship

The Third Calling

So the first calling in our lives is to seek God:

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

Mathew 6,33

 

The second calling is to love our neighbor:

For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Galatians 5,14

 

The third calling is that we are called into the situation we already ARE in. With that I don’t necessarily mean that God have created this particular situation because that is His wants for you, but I mean that God have called you to make the best out of the situation. We should actively be seeking God, loving the people around us, and trying to see what we can do for God and our neighbors wherever we are.

We are not supposed to sit down and wait for whatever we think God has created us to do. Not called hide from the world, or to hide the fact that we belong to Him. (There are exceptions to this, but this is not the default nor common case as it may seem many believe.)

No, we are called to prepare ourselves in the ways available to us. We are called to continuously seek to understand what God wants us to see, learn or experience. Continuously seeking the people He wants us to meet. Continuously seeking His will at whatever point of our journey we are at.

 

King David, when he was a kid, served his family as a shepherd. Being a shepherd was not a high status occupation, but he spent the time well. From the years as a shepherd he learned to know God. He had a lot of hours, just watching the sheep as the grazed, and where his mind could reach out to God and learn to know Him. He also learned to depend on God. Even after he had been anointed to become a king by Samuel, he still was a shepherd and kept faithfully to do the tasks he was put into doing. His time to become a king came many years later, and before that he had a long way to walk. But he kept seeking Gods will in every situation He got into, and he was blessed by God. This is only one of the many stories in the bible about people having to walk a long journey before they came to their ultimate calling in their lives. All of them had to serve patiently on whatever and wherever they were put into doing on the way.

 

In our life with God, we need to know that to God, the journey is as important as the destination itself. This can be a very big change for modern day people that are used to be able to get around the world in just a couple of days. While our journey with God tends to be paced like if we were walking the distances. There are no “plane rides” to get to whatever calling we are walking towards. No shortcuts! The journey has a lot of importance to God: We are to meet people, to gain strength and knowledge, to establish relationships, and to encounter experiences and situations that will prepare us for what is to come.

 

This third calling is also always joined with the great commission:

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

Mathew 28,19-20a

This is something all believers in Christ are called to do, and it is not exclusively connected with some kind of ministry. We are called to do this wherever we are. We are called to disciple people and to bring them to Christ. The topic of discipling and discipleship deserves its own post, so I may very well return to that some other time.

 

There is one aspect of both discipleship and being called to where we are at the moment that I need to mention. That is the fact that at any moment of our lives, we have certain responsibilities that should be prioritized before any ministry we might have. Most important here is our responsibilities for our own family, especially any spouse or children we might have. If we do not spend a fair amount of time with them, I would say we are neither being good disciplers, nor are we being just to them. I would even say that we are opening up for many attacks from the evil, if we do not give our given responsibilities in life enough time and attention they require. Feel free to read Ephesians 6 about our spiritual armor. Therefore, spend time with those we owe to spend time with. There is much to be said about his, so I may return to this topic some other time.

 

So:

1. Love God: Spend time with God, and learn to know Him!

2. Love your neighbor: Try seeing what God sees in people. Let God love them through you.

3. Live in the now: Follow up on your responsibilities. Bless those around you. Prepare for any calling.

 

These are what all believers are called to do.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise – “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

 

Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.

 

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people, because you know that the Lord will reward each one for whatever good they do, whether they are slave or free.

 

And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.

Ephesians 6,1-9

The Second Calling

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

“Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

When Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And from then on no one dared ask him any more questions.

Mark 12;28-34

There is another calling we have that come before the tasks God have called us to. It is the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves. In there is two challenges and traps we may fall into. The first is the challenge it may be to love our neighbor: The people we meet in our everyday lives! The other is the challenge it may be to actually love ourselves as God have meant us to do!

I will begin with the last part of this task: To love ourselves. In this world, it seems that to love ourselves means to put yourself before everyone else. It is important that we do not go into this trap. Nor should go into the trap that we hate and dislike ourselves due to all the weaknesses we can see in ourselves. We need to learn what God sees in us, and what he loves to see in us. This is what we are supposed to love. This is the true core of who we are: The human God created us to be!

To love ourselves is an important condition to be able to love our neighbor as much as we are supposed to. If we hate ourselves, we will end up hating others. When we travel by plane, we are always told during the security briefing that we are supposed to put on our own oxygen mask first, before trying to help anyone else. This is because trying to help others; we may end up not being able to neither give help, or to help ourselves.

If we are to love others at the maximum, we also need to love ourselves at the maximum. But as I said before: To love ourselves have nothing to do about putting ourselves before others, but to see ourselves as God sees us!

Why is it so important to love our neighbor? What makes it so important that it come before the other tasks God have given us?

I mean the importance of this, is that is just that love for our neighbors is what is supposed to motivate our ministry! If our motivation come from other sources that our love for God AND the love for our neighbors, then the danger will always be that we either grow proud in ourselves, or we burn out.

I also believe that the love for our neighbors functions as a multiplicator or amplifier in the ministry we serve. When people see that we do what we do for them out of love, we end up having a much greater influence on their lives. If we want to be efficient in our ministry, we need to love those we serve!

Another reason that the love for our neighbor is so important in our ministry is that it gives our ministry substance, power, reason and cause. Feel free to read 1th Corinthians about what ministry and deeds done without love do us. Do we want to be like a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal?

Therefore: Learn to know God. Get to know how much he loves you! Get to know how much he loves our neighbor. When you learn to know him, and learn to love Him who gave himself for you. Then you will not be able to not love those who he created. Then you will love the many lost daughters and sons of our beloved God and Lord! Then your heart will be filled by sorrow when you see the many who have been fooled, and you will be filled with a passion both for the people of God and the lost sheep!

Love Him, and love those He loves!

Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

1 John 4;20-21

The First Calling

What is the most important calling of God in your life?
A prophet? Teacher? Apostle? Maybe an evangelist? Or a shepherd?
Are you an intercessor? Or a caretaker?
Do you see people, and encourage them where they are?
Or do you have another task?

All these are good callings, given by God to build His church.
But these are not the first and most important calling we have!
Look upon the Lord. Get to know Him who delivered us!
Learn to know Him, spend time with Him, love Him!

When did you speak with God last time? Did you ask him for things?
Or did you just want to spend time with Him? Love Him!
Love Him who loved you in eternities eternity!
Look upon Him who paid with His own life that you may live!

Love Him, and living water will flow from you.
Love Him, and you will love the unlovable.
Love Him, and you will be light and salt in the world.
Love Him, and your gifts of service will grow and be blessed.

How can you love someone you do not know? Without God that is impossible!
Learn to know Him, to see His love for YOU!
Let Him awaken the love in you, for His glory!
Let Him light the light in your eyes!
Let Him make you into a lighthouse of love!
But most important: Learn to know Him!
Spend time with Him who loved you since before the beginning of time!
That is our first calling:
To spend all our time to strengthen the relation with God the Almighty, the Creator of Universe!

From THAT relationship our other callings will flow naturally!
From the first calling, our love for our neighbors will be flooding!
From Him, through us the world will be blessed!
From Him, we get power to get even closer to Him!

See Him
Hear Him
Meet Him
Love Him