A love for the Caller and the Calling

The basis of our calling.

What causes someone to jump out of a boat in deep water to get to a man on shore?

What causes a woman to wait outside a tomb three days after her brother was laid to rest inside?

Was causes a woman to fall at the feet of a man and clean his feet with perfume on her hair?

Love. These people and so many more reacted out of love.

First fall in love with your caller, before falling in love with your call.

1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

First requirement in following your calling is a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Acts 9:15 NIV

But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.

Paul was specifically called and chosen by God to stand before kings and people who didn't know God. This is the simplicity of the gospel. But how often we forget the second part of this calling. How often we are excited at the thought of sharing the gospel and then we are turned away by this second thought.

Acts 9:16 NIV

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

2 Corinthians 11:24-28 NIV

Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.

What is it that caused this man to press on saying he would continue to fight the good fight?

Philippians 3:8-11 NIV

What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

He just wants to know God more. In His presence Paul’s love for him grows more. Everything else is worthless compared to this.

Romans 8:18, 35-39 NIV

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:

"For your sake we face death all day long;

we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Where your heart is, there too will you be. It is evident in Paula endurance in joy that his heart isn't of earth not rather seeks after Christ in heaven.

Luke 10:38-42 NIV

As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Martha was "distracted" by serving because somewhere along the way she had forgotten that the primary goal was to know Him; to have fellowship with God. We need to know him and we need to not be distracted. Know his love for us. We must constantly come back to this place of just learning and getting to know the person and love of Jesus Christ. This should be the thing that we desire more than anything;that we would know our Savior. It is good to be allowed to share and whitness to people, but before you have a passion for the calling, you have to have a passion for the One who calls you.

Acts 14:19 NIV

Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead.

Yet another of many opportunities for him to walk away from this calling. But he didn't because it was all worth it. He counted also his comfort loss for sharing the gospel. Paul didn't give God boundaries. Paul didn't say to God "i have this amount of bills to pay every month and i have this and that hobby to maintain and inside of that ill serve you." He gave his all because he had a love for the caller and the calling.