As a believer we have three callings from God. A lot of this content was learned from a book by Tim Keller called Every Good Endeavor. If you want to read more about your calling and work that is a great resource. We are called to faith in Jesus Christ. We are called to share the message of the good news and we are called to work.
Our Foundation in A Calling
To start, we need a right view of work from God himself. Fortunately, the Bible begins with the Genesis creation story and allows us to immediately understand the goodness of God and the goodness of creation. God calls us to work but we can learn that His goodness is what compels us to work. We all are charged with ’subduing’ the land and to make it fertile. In God’s call, he is giving us a call much like His own work in creation, to work and by so doing create order and structure. God is also setting the stage for the dignity of all work as we are all created in God’s image. Secondly, as creations of God with a calling to work we are called into our own creations where we express beauty and justice in our work and point back to God’s own work.
This is how God outlines work for us prior to the fall. After the fall, where sin enters the world we now experience frustration and challenge in work. Remember that work is good as God’s creation is good and he calls us to subdue it, but it is hard, it is now a labor, often a burden. We can do good work but all of our longing for purpose and meaning and making the most of our lives and our work will not and cannot be fully realized because we are not in God’s presence. We will be one day in a perfect environment but we are not yet.
This is the playing field in which we live and work. And God gives us three callings in the midst of our situation in order to flourish as individuals seeking God but not knowing how or where to find Him. This is why God’s calling(s) are so important.
God Calls Us Out of Sin and to Faith in Jesus
The first call of those that are created in God’s image is to faith in Jesus. This is a call to repentance and confession to God that He is God and we are lost without Him. And we call on the name of the Lord for salvation. 1 Cor 1:9 tells us “God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom 10:13, “For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Call to Share the Good News and Disciple
1 Peter 2:9 – 10 reads, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” God’s call is to proclaim, with words, to other people the good news and that God you out of the darkness and into the light. That he can do the same for others. This is both an individual calling and a calling as a body in community with each other and God.
Call to Work
This call is specific in how we think about work but unique to each individual’s gifts and talents. 1 Cor 7:17 “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.” As this verse tells us, God has a call in the assignment that He has for each person.
In our assignment, we must begin with remembering God’s truths about work and life that He laid out for human flourishing and creativity. (1 Gen 1:27 – 28, 2:15, 2:19-20, Ex 20:9, 2 Thess 3:10) This is namely that we are created in God’s image as image bearers. We are to ’subdue’ the earth and have dominion over it. This is a call to cultivate the land to bring forth good crops. This is a call for doing good work as a culture and society and seeking order, justice, and goodness pursuing God’s ideal for human flourishing.
We are Co-Creators with God
Our three callings: to faith in Christ, to grow in discipleship and sharing, and our call to work, set up a sort of trifecta of who we are meant to be. Everyone has an identity in Christ Jesus as a co-creator with God. We are made in God’s image and called to do good works with our unique creative giftings and talents. God lives in us and has changed us and he works in and through us. Everything we do, we say, how we act – this is all the work that God has called us too. 1 Colossians 3:17 tells us “And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
As a co-creator with God, we must acknowledge that our work is not our own. We must give him praise and glory for everything we do. We must look to God for direction in prayer and humility as we seek to follow his call.
We should do work differently with God working in and through us. Our hope is not mortal, it is immortal and eternal. We have access to the God of the Universe. We should not be afraid. We should work with excellence, striving for competence in whatever God has called us too. Know that God wants our hearts, wherever we currently are in life.
You don’t always need to make drastic changes to your circumstances in order to live for God. You want to follow God’s call but you don’t need to go into the vocational ministry in order to follow God’s call. We are simply told to heed the call of God and seek God’s will in the midst of where he has us. 1 Cor 7:17 tells us “Only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him.”
My pastor, Kyle Worley says, “Our calling is to be a people living in God’s presence with purpose in a specific place.” We seek to live ordinary lives for the sake of a radical gospel. We look to God and how he has uniquely made us. With our gifts and talents submitted to Him we observe where we can do good in service to others. This can be a vocation, a role, or simply an action. We have callings to work as husbands, fathers, and Christians in community with each other.
Kaleo is the Root
Tim Keller in Every Good Endeavor informs us that the Greek word for ’to call’ is kaleo and that in the New Testament it is specifically used to express calls to saving faith, to reach the world with God’s message and into community with the church. He points out that “the very greek word for church – ekklesia – literally means the ‘ones called out.’ “ It is clear that believers have a very specific call from God on our lives to turn from sin and look to Jesus the author and perfector of our faith. And to worship and praise God with His church as a people dwelling with God for a purpose in a specific place. This is our effectual calling and it should change the way we live and work.