God’s Call For You
Jesus and Jiu-Jitsu // Devotional #70
I was 20 years old when I received my first “full-time” ministry assignment. In addition to a single-room apartment perched above a deacon’s garage, I was granted a staggering $800-a-month stipend and my very own office. I even had a desk. But one thing was missing, and it was something I felt made me a ministerial fraud: I’d never received a formal call to ministry.
Growing up in the church, receiving a call to ministry seemed an honor just shy of being elected to Congress, and was treated with just as much dignity and, honestly, mystique. Those called to the ministry often described their call in biblical terms, citing moments when God might as well have spoken to them audibly. Like God calling the prophets of the Old Testament, God called these men to such a time as this to do a great and important work. The way they talked about it made it seem as if they would die following that call, because nothing could have been more certain.
My own call to ministry was less of a singular moment and more of a series of moments. The first moment was in 9th grade, when my youth pastor found out I was in choir and owned a guitar. The second came a couple of years later, when I was asked to preach. The third was being invited to lead worship at a local church while still in high school.
Each time, as far as I remember, the clouds didn’t part, a ray of light didn’t shine down, and there wasn’t the audible voice of the Lord telling me, in explicit detail, what I’d spend my days doing. Mostly, there were small opportunities to use my gifts in meaningful ways for a group of people God had already placed around me. I kept saying yes to what the Lord placed in front of me, did the next thing, and over time found that God cultivated a calling far beyond what I could’ve built for myself.
Even though I was doing ministry, I still wondered whether I was ever truly called. I’d built up a view of God’s calling and ministry where both were reserved for a special class of people, one I wasn’t sure I belonged to. Maybe you’ve wrestled with something similar, wondering whether God could use you or whether God only uses those who’ve received a special dispensation of God’s favor.
And yet, read what Paul writes to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 about the role God’s given us to play in His effort to reconcile a broken world back to Himself:
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (ESV)
Look at the pattern Paul establishes. When we are reconciled to God by faith in Christ, the same Gospel message we receive to be reconciled to God now becomes the message we are entrusted to share with others. We are reconciled to call others to reconciliation. We are made new in Christ so that we can call others to new life in Him.
Who are the ambassadors Paul points to? Is it a special class of highly gifted believers, or only professional Christians? No! Everyone whom God reconciles to Himself is commissioned to serve on God’s behalf. There is no varsity in God’s kingdom.
Meaning this: you are called by God. You, where you are, with all your hangups, with all your doubts, and with all the broken parts that God is still healing. God wants to make His appeal through you and invites you to play a part in His plan to redeem all things.
Though we might intellectually know that to be true, our problem lies not only in how we perceive God’s call on others but also in how we understand God’s unique call for us. We often assume that God’s call is singular, defining our purpose for all time. Or we assume that God’s call must mean we have to be in vocational ministry, believing we could be most effective there.
So, we wait. We might not be waiting for aerial phenomena, but we could be waiting for an invitation from someone else, a definitive sign about our future, or an overwhelming compulsion toward a specific task. We often wait with good motives, not wanting to miss God’s directional call. Yet while we wait, we miss the very things God’s placed right in front of us to do. And maybe most importantly, we miss the people God’s placed right in front of us.
The truth is, if we’re waiting for a definitive, life-altering call before we step forward in obedience, we will likely miss the call God’s already given us. The deep faithfulness God uses to do His best work, and the kind of calling that often defines a lifetime of service to God and others, is daily obedience in the small, mostly unnoticed moments with people, where we can bear witness to God’s grace and goodness in Jesus.
It’s the moment when we love the person in front of us with a love that reflects Jesus’. It’s when we joyfully and sacrificially give our time, resources, and creativity, not expecting anything in return. It’s when we surrender to God’s revealed will in His Word rather than to our preferences or designs. As we do this, as we cultivate a life of faithfulness to God’s general call, He refines and reveals gifts and opportunities unique to us and, in turn, does something through us that we could never accomplish on our own.
Knowing and embracing God’s call isn’t a one-time yes, but the culmination of a thousand yeses. It is doing the next thing God’s called you to today, leaning in with the faith He provides, and trusting that He can even use our leftover lunch (Matt. 14:13-21) to do far more abundantly than we could ask or imagine.
Take time to consider these questions:
How have you thought about God’s unique call on your life? Has waiting for God’s unique call ever kept you from faithfulness in the everyday?
Based on 2 Cor. 5:18-20, how can we know we’ve received an invitation to participate in God’s reconciliatory work?
What opportunities has God placed before you today to faithfully follow Him and obey the call to invite others to be reconciled to Him in Christ?
As you end your time, thank God for inviting you to play a part in His work of redeeming all things. Praise Him for using people like us as His ambassadors, as trophies of His grace, to bear witness to the depths of His mercy toward us. Ask the Lord to reveal His unique call to you as you follow Him in daily faithfulness and obedience.
