Being with the Lord…. Our First Calling

Romans 1:6 - And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. (NIV)

I suspect like me, you are trying your very best to fulfil your calling. Or you may be trying to find your calling or purpose. Like me, I suspect you also forget our primary and first calling. We forget that our first calling isn’t about doing. It isn’t about achieving or fruitfulness. Our first calling is simply about being. It is to belong to Jesus, that is to be with Jesus.

One of my favourite verses in the Bible is Mark 3:14.

Mark 3:14 - He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach. (NIV)

In this verse, Mark explains that Jesus called the twelve apostles firstly, so that they would be with him. After being with him, they were sent out to fulfil their secondary calling.

How many of us get this mixed up? As I write this devotional, I am reflecting on the number of times I have switched the order of callings. Replacing my time with the Lord for some other worthwhile task - perhaps my day job, a phone call from a friend, sleep, ministry or even church? Or maybe I haven’t set aside time for the Lord, knowing that he understands that I need to bear fruit in whatever I am doing. To be clear, none of these things are bad and there is definitely grace for the times that we oversleep or have some other “emergency”. But perhaps if we viewed our being with the Lord as a calling, we might be more inclined to give it unwavering prominence in our lives.

Questions to reflect: Do I view my time with the Lord as my primary calling? How can I adjust my schedule to make time to be with the Lord?