At first glance, this question appears to have multiple answers. God is calling me to love Him. God is calling me to be a good person. God is calling me to serve others. God is calling me to be an accountant. Hundreds of books have been penned on the subject of finding God's will for your life.
But I think that it is much more simple than people make it out to be.
Our calling is to spread the gospel, preach the gospel, write the gospel, and in myriad other ways to communicate the good news to all of our fellow inhabitants on planet earth. Don't get me wrong, loving God, serving others, and being good people (not to mention the fine art of accountancy) are all honorable and noble things to do with life.
In fact, I would say that preaching the gospel and loving Jesus have to go hand in hand. But just loving Jesus without ever showing another that love is sacrilege. Being moral people and serving others are vehicles to preach the gospel, not ends in and of themselves.
Sure, God cares about where you work, where you live, and what you spend money on, but not because He necessarily cares about that company but because He cares about the lost people in that company. Everything He does is towards the sole purpose of drawing souls to Himself; accordingly, everything He would have you do is pledged to the same goal.
While individuals are certainly called to certain jobs and whatnot, we must always keep in focus the reason you're called to that job: to further the Kingdom of Heaven by preaching the gospel.
Loving, serving, and being good are byproducts of a life wholly surrendered to Christ. For it is only through Him that we do good.
The next time that you go to God and ask His will for your life, remember to keep in mind our ultimate calling, that of preaching the gospel in Jerusalem, in Samaria, in Judea, and to the ends of the earth.
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. Colossians 1:28,29
While I certainly agree with the idea that God's will is perhaps more easily deduced (at least in general) than people make it out to be, couldn't it also be argued that God's will for our life is first and foremost to glorify Him? After all, the thing God cares about most (if I recall correctly) is His own glory (hence the angels singing it all the time).
ReplyDeleteWouldn't our sharing of the gospel be another (extremely important) way of bringing Him glory.
(Not to criticize, of course, but I was wondering what your thinking here was)
Anyways, I suppose you could chalk the whole thing up to semantics if you really wanted to, since they are inseperable. It's just my $.02
ReplyDeleteI would agree. As Paul says in Ephesians 1:5, God saves us for the furtherance of His personal glory. I should have been more clear on that
ReplyDelete