We Are Called – EP91 (Ephesians 4:1)
Ephesians 4:1
"As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received"
Hello and welcome back to the One Thing podcast. Excited to share a scripture from the book of Ephesians today. It’s Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1 and it says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.”
Now many times when we hear the word “calling”, or we talk about “our calling”, we can get into all sorts of things or aspects of what that calling may actually mean. For some people, they feel as though their calling may be to be a doctor, their calling is to travel the world, or their calling is to own a business and we've probably had numerous conversations about our calling and what we felt in our lives or we’ve heard from others. Some people feel they are called to serve the Lord, they are called to give their life to God.
“Our main calling in this life as those who are in Christ is to serve the Lord.”Ultimately when I look at this verse, I see that Paul is calling all of us to live a life worthy of the calling we have received. What is that calling? See as a Christian, we can be called to do different things and yes they are important, whether we’re called to a certain job or to a certain industry or to a certain school but before we can get into any other calling, we must understand our ultimate calling, as Paul speaks here, a calling that is worthy of the Lord.
Our main calling in this life as those who are in Christ is to serve the Lord. What does that look like? By carefully devoting ourselves to prayer, does it mean that we're in a prayer closet all day long? No, but it means we have a heart of prayer where we may be at work just crying out to the Lord, even as we're at a register, or even as we sit in front of a computer or we’re laboring and digging holes, we can be praying, “Father, come. Father, I worship You. I just bless You.” Really just trusting in Him. Trusting that He's hearing, trusting that we can worship Him even as we're driving in our cars.
“And as we serve the Lord, God can empower us with the power of His Spirit.”And so we are called to serve the Lord. We do that by prayer. We do it by asking for His presence throughout the day. I just love to say, “Holy Spirit, come. Fill my mind. Alert me to Your voice. Help me to be quickened in obeying You. Quicken me, Father in obeying Your voice. Quicken me in understanding and obeying Your Word.” And as we serve the Lord, God can empower us with the power of His Spirit.
To serve the Lord is to walk humbly with Him. The Word of the Lord says that this is what God requires: that we “love mercy, that we act justly and walk humbly with the Lord our God”. To serve the Lord, we must continue to walk in the heart of humility. Does it mean that we walk with our heads hanging low? No. Does it mean that we beat ourselves up and put ourselves down? No but it means that we have a right perspective of things. That, ‘Father, without You, I would not be here. Father, without You, I'd be perishing in the wickedness of the world but God, by Your great mercy, I can live, walk, and breathe in the freedom to worship God, to serve You and to fulfill my calling, which is to be with You. My calling to serve You God with all of my heart, soul, mind and strength.’
So I ask today: do you know your calling? Do you know your calling? If not, may you look at this Word today. May you look to God and understand that He has called You to the greatest thing ever. The greatest call a man or woman can have, which is to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praying today that the Lord Jesus would touch you. That by the power of the gospel, by the power of His Spirit, He would allow us to fulfill and to live our lives worthy of the calling that He has given us. Worthy of the calling we have received in the Lord Jesus Christ. May you be blessed today. May you be blessed in this time and season to be those serving the Lord. Those accomplishing all that He has called you to do within His Kingdom. I just thank God for His Word and I thank Him for such a calling, amen.