Doing it for God?
When a person feels
like they have found their calling they often feel like that’s what God has put
them on earth to do. We feel like we need to do this for God. I believe that our calling is a wonderful
gift from God, but a lot of times we make that our god. We use our calling to
define our identity and not who we are as Christians, sons of God. We as men,
especially, shape our whole life around our work. We
look to our calling to bring us happiness, fulfillment, peace and joy. Our
calling cannot hold up under this kind of pressure, it is not made to carry
that kind of weight. We want Gods power to push our calling on to
the next level, to be better than everyone at what we do. Doing your work with
excellence is what we should do, but if our work is not worship to a most holy
God, we may have the wrong motives pushing us to succeed. Don’t worry if you’re His child He will fix
the problem so that you do not continue on that path. We may
not even be in our calling and we just try to add His power to where we are and
say we are doing it for God. I have, more
than once, determined that Almighty God is self-sufficient and doesn’t need me
or anyone to “do anything for Him.” “Jesus didn't come into the world to lend His
power to already existing appetites. That's the fundamental mistake of the
prosperity gospel. Leave people untransformed in what they crave, and simply
add the power of Jesus as the way to get it. That is not the gospel. It is a
kind of acclamation that Jesus walks away from. John Piper” So
one might ask; what needs to be my motive?
Do I have to do anything with the talents God gave me? Shouldn’t I use the talents He gave me? Am I just wasting my talent and passion? I struggle with this a lot. But, God will always lead us to where he wants
us, teaching us a lot on the way. Humans default mode is generally, we have to
do things in this world to earn approval of man. We carry this over in our
relationship with God and assume we have to do everything in our life to earn
Gods approval. I have found out that I do not have to use my
calling as a way to earn “God points.”
If I mess up it does not do well with man here on earth but Christ
purchased my standing with God. I am accepted
and redeemed! With that in mind this
frees me to pursue my God given talents and passions as worship and not as a
system to earn a smile from God. Our standing, as Christians, with God is the
same as in Christ’s standing with the Father.
I don’t have to work at my calling to be accepted, I get to freely
pursue the joy that it brings in my life and if I fail God sees me the same, accepted! The great thing about failure
is that it teaches me to win by pursuing my calling in a new way or moves me on
to where God wants me. So, if you are a
Christian, you can feel free to take the risk of your calling. If you mess up
along the way, and you will, its ok you have nothing to earn with God. Jesus took care of that for us! Christ made our work acceptable to God as
worship. So let’s go out and worship
with our work and enjoy our talents and remember that God uses our work to
bless us and help others! Our calling should be used to worship God not to make
God smile. Jesus made Him smile for eternity and we can enjoy it forever. You don’t have to work, you get too!!
Tim West
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