Walking Out Your Calling

When Jesus heard him, he stopped and said, “Tell him to come here.” So they called the blind man. “Cheer up,” they said. “Come on, he’s calling you!” -Mark 10:49 NLT

Imagine spending 100% of your time doing things you were gifted and anointed to do.  How awesome this would be!  Perhaps this is you already, but if this is you, you are rare indeed. Experts say that just 2% of us walk in our calling - the intersection between our gifts, talents, anointing, and our calling (also called “convergence”). 

In America today, about 65% of people are unsatisfied or unhappy with their jobs.* I think one of the major reasons people are dissatisfied is that they do not see it as a calling, and they are not using the gifts and talents God put within them.  So those gifts lie dormant, and people remain frustrated, unchallenged, and demotivated.  This is detrimental to the individual, the other people in the company, and the company itself!

Does this sound like you?  Are you dissatisfied in your work and calling?

First, we need to understand that our work is worship to God.  Are you working as unto the Lord?  Second, we need to sharpen the skills that ARE in the area of our gifting, so we can move in that direction.  Is there anything you can do outside of work or school that can sharpen you in the area of your passion and move you closer toward it?  Even if our goal is to do our passion 80% of the time, that is still a great goal.

God is a Master economist.  He wants each of us where we will do the most good, however we are gifted.  Are you walking out your calling today?


*http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2012/05/18/new-survey-majority-of-employees-dissatisfied/

Slaves vs. Sons (or Daughters)

"And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, 'Abba, Father.'  Now you are no longer a slave but God’s own child.  And since you are his child, God has made you his heir."  -Galatians 4:21-31
 
Have you ever felt like a servant or a slave, instead of a son or daughter?  I worked as a server for a while in high school and also in college in order to make ends meet.  It is gruesome work!  Working in the restaurant industry requires working nights and weekends, and doing heavy manual labor.  During the time I worked as a server I was also working through an issue of unworthiness I had in my life.  I had never felt worthy of anything good.

It was during this time that God was showing me that I had been adopted by Him.  There was nothing I could do to "prove" myself to Him or make Him love me any more than He already did.  My working and toiling and striving didn’t amount to anything more than sweat rolling off my brow.  What did matter, was an acceptance of the love that God already had for me.  I had to re-train my brain to accept this love and live in "a spirit of adoption" versus living in the rejection I experienced in my home life growing up.

The writer of Galatians describes this transition from "slave" to "son".   He talks about the difference between Abraham’s two sons - the illegitimate one born out of selfish ambition (Ishmael) and the one born of promise, Isaac.  "And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac." Galatians 4:28

We can never become sons or daughters of God by acting like "Ishmael", always trying to prove ourselves. Instead, we need to have the attitude that we have been adopted by Him, and therefore He will withhold "no good thing" from us.  (Matt 7:11) We just receive His love, blessings, and grace, instead of trying to fend for ourselves.

Have you let God adopt you as His precious son or daughter today?