Who I am In Christ #28 – Called to minister

As a writer I get excited to receive a call out.  It is an announcement or request for material to those who are on the company’s (chosen) writer list. It is an opportunity to fulfill my calling.

 

Scripture also talks about how I am called out from God – to be a believer– a child of God – In Christ.

 

2Pet. 1:10          So, friends, confirm God’s invitation to you, his choice of you. Don’t put it off; do it now. Do this, and you’ll have your life on a firm footing

 

Calling from the root word means called out.    Invited. Declared.

 

You are.

I am.

Called.

 

Called to pass on what God has done for us.

 

Where we perform it and how (with what skill or gift we disseminate it) is our vocation (I am a writer).

 

Everything we need has been provided for both our calling and avocation.  

 

2Pet. 1:3 Everything that goes into a life of pleasing God has been miraculously given to us by getting to know, personally and intimately, the One who invited us to God. The best invitation we ever received!

 

2Pet. 1:4 We were also given absolutely terrific promises to pass on

 

 

Yet we need to accept and apply these provisions:

 

2Pet. 1:5-7 So don’t lose a minute in building on what you’ve been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder,

warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others.

 

2Pet. 1:8 With these qualities active and growing in your lives, no grass will grow under your feet, no day will pass without its reward as you mature in your experience of our Master Jesus.

 

2Pet. 1:9 Without these qualities you can’t see what’s right before you, oblivious that your old sinful life has been wiped off the books.

 

 

All of these qualities enhance both the calling and the performing of our calling.  The tools have been provided, but we need to use them – apply them:

 

Build on to what you’ve been given:

Good character

Spiritual understanding

Alert discipline

Passionate patience

Reverent wonder

Warm friendliness

And generous love

 

Apply – but not in separate doses or some things for some people in our lives but not for others –

 

Each and every dimension should fit into and develop the others

 

I’ve been challenged recently to further develop writing skills reminding me of a poem I wrote a bit ago that explained how I could not not write. It is a calling – a gift from God.  But I am not to let it sit there and rust away.  I must use it.  I must develop it.

 

I am to let God’s Word develop the gift and the calling. To give spiritual understanding and develop my character so I can share the same generous love I have received.

 

That will take some discipline:

Spiritual:  Take time in God’s Word. Read. Study. Journal.

Writing:  Sit still.  Listen.  Write.  Finish.

 

Some patience: 

Spiritual:  Pray.  Wait.  Develop and build honest friendships.

Writing:  Edit.  Query.  Pray.  Send.  Wait.

 

It will bring reverent wonder:

Spiritual:  That I am called.  That my calling can be evident

Writing:  Others hear God’s voice  – readers, editors, publishers

 

Yes, I love writing.  I love writing about what God has done in my life and in the lives of others.

 

That is what I am called to do.

IN Christ