Summer is winding down, kids are shopping for school supplies, and businesses are just about back to peak strength. Labor Day is upon us – September is here – Friday night football games are getting us excited. We all are getting geared up to move into a busy fall season. With all that in mind, God has placed a verse heavily upon my heart. Ephesians 4:1KJV says, “…walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called”. In the NIV we read, “…live a life worthy of the calling you have received”.
When asked the question, “What is your vocation?” people naturally reply, “I’m a farmer, a salesman, a teacher, a secretary, or a housewife”, according to what is commonly considered to be their main business of life. If we are children of God, our true vocation is not plumbing or truck driving, it is not counseling or computer technology. We have higher and better things to absorb our attention and to work at than temporal ones. We have a calling from God to keep and a God to glorify. Our real vocation is to be occupied in doing our heavenly Father’s business. Selling or repairing, typing or accounting is but our avocation; our one vocation, our main business is to seek to be like Christ and to do His will.
Our human way of dividing life into two parts, the secular and the sacred, is not God’s way. We think of the sacred as requiring one set of actions such as prayer, Bible reading, worship and Christian service. Over against these, we set secular acts – those concerned with the maintenance of our existence in this world. These we regard as having no spiritual content or value. Out tendency is to carry on our secular activities without thought of God.
If we are Christians then we belong to God. In fact everything belongs to God. What we have has just been loaned to us by Him to manage for Him while we live. He is the owner and we are the possessors. So whatever we are involved in and involved with is a spiritual matter because we are dealing with God’s stuff. In fact each moment we live is another gift from God to us to use for His glory. Therefore whatever we do we should do as unto God, not divorcing the sacred and the secular, but perform our every act with God in thought and purpose. Our main business as Christians is to be doing always the work of God, to seek first His kingdom in our personal lives, and to do His will in everything.
In almost every occupation, one has contacts with others. Each contact gives us the privilege of ministering under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Each person we meet is an opportunity for us to serve God. Every day God orchestrates our lives so that they will connect with someone who needs Him. They are divine appointments – even though we would classify some of those moments as interruptions. God is in charge and He wants to use each of as points of contact with people in need.
Our vocation is to be about our Father’s business in the midst of whatever we may be doing in order to earn a living. School, our homes, the office are just locations where we are on the job for God to get His agenda done.
As you move into this busy fall season are you determined to make the main thing the main thing? Are you ready to see everything about your life as sacred? Are you ready to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called? Are you ready to live a life worthy of the calling you have received? Can God count on you to complete the work He has given only to you to accomplish? Why not take time today to fully report for duty?
Laborers Together with Christ,
Pastor Steve