JDL - Direction Forty-nine - Three Calls - To faith, to vocation, to the Office of Holy Ministry

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. (Ephes. 4:11-13 (ESV))

In one’s life you will experience more than one call from God. God’s first call to every Christian is the call to faith. Through the means which He has given to come to us, that is through the mediate means of grace, His Word and/or His Sacrament of Holy Baptism, our Lord comes to each one of us to call us to faith. Through the waters of Holy Baptism our Lord calls us to faith and even puts faith in our hearts. Through the means of His Word, the Bible, either though our reading or hearing it, He puts faith in our hearts. Every one who is a Christian has this calling from God, and it is a complete calling.

Certainly, we might suggest that every person in the world also has this calling to faith by God. Unfortunately, too many resist, refuse and even reject this calling from God. Yet, the calling is there, and up until the point of His return or one’s own physical death from this world, that call remains. The unforgivable sin is to resist, refuse and reject that calling even to the point of death.

The second calling that Christians have is the calling to vocation. This calling is distinctly to Christians because a non-believer cannot be called as such as we will see. The Christian is called to vocation, that is the Christian is called to work but not just to work. The Christian is called to work for the Lord. Here we see that this calling then is only to the Christians because a non-believer cannot and will not work for the Lord. Although we might rightly say that even though a non-believer might not work for the Lord, the Lord can certainly use the work of a non-believer for His good as we have seen on numerous occasions in Scripture when God would use an unbelieving king or even nation for His purposes.

It is disheartening how many Christians get frustrated with their work, their job, their occupation, their career, etc. They do not like working for a particular boss. They do not like working with a particular person. They do not like this or that about their job, and it becomes work for them. Yet, they fail to give up this work to find something more amenable because of salary considerations.

There is another possible solution, that is, if one is content and likes what they are doing except for reasons listed above. One solution is to pray for those with whom one is having trouble. Although we might want to pray that God would change that person, a better prayer would be for God to help us to love them.

A second solution would be to remind yourself that you are not working for someone, but you are ultimately working for the Lord. Do your job as if God is your boss. With that in mind, would we not want to do our best, even our very best, as we would want to do all things to His glory. Working for the Lord, instead of a boss or with a certain employee brings a different perspective to one’s work and makes it a job worth doing and doing right.

Finally, to complete this direction on callings from God, there is a third calling from God which some men may experience, and that is the calling to the Office of Holy Ministry. This calling may begin as an inner inkling, but that is not enough to say that one has the calling to the Office of Holy Ministry. A man cannot call himself into the Office of Holy Ministry. He may have an inner calling, but he is not a Minister until he also has an outward, an external call when his inner call is confirmed by an outward call from a congregation. It is these two things working together, the call from God to the man and the call of God through the congregation that makes a man a Minister.

Living a Jesus-directed life means that we understand these callings from God. It also means that we bow ourselves to the Lord’s will in our lives. We bow ourselves to His plan, design and purpose for our lives, and it means that whatever our station and vocation we live and work for the Lord and do our best to His glory.

Think About
Because God does not call to vocations that are against His Word, how do we confirm our feelings if we feel called to such a vocation?

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for calling us to faith and to vocation. Forgive us when we allow our feelings to move us to think we might work in vocations that are against Your Word and will. Help us in our vocations to live lives of faith, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.