How Do We Know We are Called?
- I am pulled or drawn by Christ’s call rather as the earth is pulled by the force of gravity. It is helpful to remember that the same word that is used for this mysterious force is also used to mean “seriousness” or “earnestness.” It is a force that draws toward a center.
- Where there is no moral gravity – that is, no force that draws us to the center – there is a spiritual weightlessness. We float on feelings that will carry us where we never meant to go; we bubble with emotional experiences that we often take for spiritual ones; and we are puffed up with pride. Instead of seriousness, there is foolishness. Instead of gravity, flippancy. Sentimentality takes the place of theology. Our reference point will never serve to keep our feet on solid rock, for our reference point, until we answer God’s call, is merely ourselves.
- The invitation has been issued: Come to me, all whose work is hard, whose load is heavy; and I will give you relief. bend your necks to. my yoke, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble-hearted.
The first baby step of faith is followed by a daily walk of obedience, and it is as we continue with Him in His Word that we are assured that we are, in fact, called and have nothing to fear.
Elisabeth Elliot | Joyful Surrender
- It is not the perfection of their faith that convinced Paul they were called. They had made a beginning. In that beginning, Paul found evidence of faith: “It is in full reliance upon God, through Christ, that we make such claims. There is no question of our being qualified in ourselves: we cannot claim anything as our own. The qualification we have comes from God.”
- Young people sometimes say to me, “I’ll just die if the Lord calls me to be a missionary,” or words to that effect. “Wonderful!” I say. “That’s the best possible way to start. You won’t be of much use on the mission field unless you ‘die’ first.”