God's Special Calling on Your Life

My heart was still beating fast from the rush of adrenaline from speaking to the crowd of several hundred teens. I stepped off the stage on that hot May night and an older man put his hand on my shoulder. “God has a calling on your life, son. You are going to bring revival to your generation.” I was eighteen years old.

 

The words churned in my heart and mind for many years. Sometimes they were an encouragement. Sometimes they were a burden. They were always aspirational: how amazing would it be to be part of leading revival?

 

Do you want a special calling on your life? I hope so.

 

While I’m sure that the man was well-meaning, I don’t believe he was accurate. Unlike that man, I don’t know claim to know the calling God has for your life. But I can speak with confidence of three truths about your calling that are clear in scripture.

 

First, your calling is important to God, no matter how unnoticed it is by the world,. Don’t worry about whether God’s calling on your life is something that will gain you praise. Put aside the desire to become famous or to build a platform. In God’s economy, those who receive the least praise for doing good are those who receive the most honor. Paul explains,

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” 22 On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, 24 which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it… 1 Cor. 12:21-24

Don’t confuse honor from the world with the honor God gives you. It appears that God grants more honor to those whose calling is not honored by others.

 

Second, your calling is to bless others. Paul explains, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7). Your calling is not for yourself, it is meant to bless others.

 

Third, your calling will involve suffering. The Christian life is cross-shaped. “If anyone would come after me,” Jesus said, “Let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk. 9:23). Jesus suffered not so that we would not suffer, but to show us how to suffer.

 

This is doubly true for those who are called to lead Christ’s people. To the church at Colossae, Paul says, “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col. 1:24). Christ’s suffering is the shape of our salvation, our sanctification, and our ecclesiology. The Christian life and even the Christian community is formed by the cross.

 

How do you respond to suffering in your life? When suffering comes to me, I squirm, moan, and cry out to God. I beg for the trial to pass. Many Christians see suffering as a punishment from God, a sign of his disfavor. And while God can certainly bring suffering to us in order to correct sin in our lives, let us not be confused: suffering is the natural course of anyone who follows Christ. Jesus did not suffer that we might avoid suffering; Jesus suffered to show us how to suffer.

 

Do you want a special calling on your life? You have one! However obscure your calling, you are noticed by God. Your calling is to build others up. And your calling will involve suffering. And all of this will result in the praise and the glory of his name and in your heart being formed to look more and more like his cross-shaped heart.

 

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Photo by Elena Koycheva on Unsplash