-Strength for Today- "We’re Called to Serve.” - Hebrews 5:4.

The Bible often mentions people being called by God for a specific service. The Old Testament priests were called by God to their special work – Exodus 28:1; cf. Hebrews 5:4. To be “called by God,” is to be “chosen by God for His purpose.” And when a person is aware of that call, and surrenders to it, “he” or “she” starts “listening,” and “living” out God’s purpose. 

God called “the entire nation of Israel” to be “a kingdom of priests” and “a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6), and likewise the church, “redeemed by the blood of Jesus,” is similarly called “to be a kingdom of priests to serve our God,” by becoming a “Holy Spirit driven community,” here “on earth,” to “reveal His purpose” - Revelations 1:6. 

God called Israel was to “showcase God’s salvation to the pagan world,” but instead “they rejected Him,” and “followed idols,” and “never flourished in the way God wanted to prosper them. But “His call now is to all those redeemed by the blood of Jesus” to “showcase to our world” God’s “mercy,” “grace,” and “salvation” - Hebrews 12:14; Matthew 5:16. God’s “calling,” and “service,” to the Christian is in the “singular” mode” and its intent, is for “His sovereign purpose.”  

Every Christian has a calling on “his” or “her” life. We were designed before the foundation of the world to be His workmanship, glorifying Him as we bring forth the fruit He desires - Ephesians 1:4–5; 2:10. God’s specific call to service usually begins “with a burden for a particular need,” that relates to “the kingdom of God.”  

We discover our call “to a specific area of service,” by “walking closely with the Lord,” “practicing obedience,” and “offering ourselves as living sacrifices - Romans 12:1–2; Colossians 1:10. As we develop sensitivity to His voice, at first it might be a “small whisper,” but this but the outskirts of His ways, showing us that “a small whisper” of His righteousness, and with the “thundering of His power,” we can move forward in our calling and service, with what we know – 2 Timothy 2:15.  

Because when our hearts are “set to obey the Lord,” His “kingdom purpose is revealed.” In that “the gospel of the kingdom" was “foretold in the Old Testament,” “preached by Jesus,” and “bought by Jesus,” “preached by the early church,” and “should be preached by us,” until “all the peoples hear it.” This gospel of the kingdom “is the good news” that, “at the coming of Jesus,” God, because of His “unconditional love,” (John3:16), moved into this world “in an unprecedented way,” to “save the souls of sinners.” 

Author: Plez Lovelady, Jr., PhD