RESPONDING TO GOD'S CALL

Once we have received an invitation or direction from God, we must choose whether and how to respond. 

As Ben Campbell Johnson points out, 

“All efforts to listen to the call of God, to scan our memories for clues, to look for signs of God’s presence, to engage in the struggles with God and ourselves, and to listen to the reflections of others—all these efforts are wasted unless we act.”

The first response required is actually one of the heart, not of our hands or feet. 

It may be tempting to rush into action. But the central issue is whether or not we will surrender to God. The discovery of our calling is a divine disruption that requires us to make a choice beyond mere intellectual assent. Will we keep doing what we have been doing, or will we fundamentally reorient our lives so that we can join God’s work? The more closely we have walked with God through the preparation and discernment phases of the calling process, the better prepared our hearts will be to respond in submission.

Make no bones about it: Surrender costs us everything. 

Yet the death of our agenda is the only way to life in our calling. We all eventually surrender to something—or to someone. Will it be to God and the fullness he promises, or to our own illusions of control based on our limited perspective? We do not need to know all the details of a calling in order to begin obeying it. But faith is not blind obedience, either. When we are communicating with God regularly and have surrendered our will to his, faith is not a leap; it’s a series of steps. And that next thing is often much simpler than we imagine.

Your next step may be a simple phone call. An email. Some online research. A yes instead of a no. Ten minutes of your time. A few of your dollars. More prayer. A lunch meeting. A conversation. An exploratory trip. With each step we take, the next one becomes clearer. Start with the little things.

Questions:

• Are you fully surrendered to God, or are you currently resisting him in any matter of your calling?
• Is there an area where you have received enough direction to step out instead of waiting for more details? What is the next thing you should do?