What is the calling on your life? Some think that as a Christian, only those who are called as missionaries, deacons or elders are called. However, Scripture tells us that as Christians, all are called by the Father (1 Peter 2:9). The question then becomes what are you called to and how do you hear the voice of God to follow His call?
In 1 Samuel 3:1-20, we see the story of God calling Samuel. Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle, and he hears the voice of God. Yet at first, he does not know that. He gets up and runs to Eli and says, “Here I am.” Eli tells Samuel, “I did not call you.” Samuel goes back to bed. A second time, God calls Samuel and a second time he runs to Eli and says, “Here I am.” Eli, says again, “I did not call you, Go back to bed!”
God calls Samuel for the third time, and he gets up and runs to Eli, and he says “Here I am. Did you call me?” Eli then understood that it was the Lord calling the boy. He told Samuel, “Go lie down again, and if you hear the voice call you once more, respond, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So, Samuel returned to his bed. Then the Lord came and called out just as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel answered, “Speak, for your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:1–20).
As in this case with Samuel, sometimes God may be calling you and you think that it is your brain playing tricks on you. Or you think, “No, God would not be calling me.” But God calls us all to something. In Os Guiness’s book The Call he says, “Calling is the truth that God calls us to himself so decisively that everything we are, everything we do, and everything we have is invested with a special devotion, dynamism, and direction lived out as a response to his summons and service.” This is the essence of submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Therefore, our first call is to Christ, a call lived out as a disciple (Eph. 4: 1-6; 11-16).
To be disciples, we require discipline, or more precisely, disciplines, such as reading Scripture and prayer. To hear God’s voice, we must be in conversation with God. Through prayer and other spiritual disciplines we learn to hear the voice of God and respond as His children. “Each of our lives is therefore relational and aural at core. All we are is a hearing and a response. We are responsible because we are response-able.” Yes, we are responsible to hear God’s voice. Like a child hearing his mother’s voice in the night, we must tune our hearing to the voice of the One calling us.
“Father in heaven, I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.”
Os Guinness - The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life p. 29 & 92
1 Sam 3:1–20
J. Ortberg - A Covenant Prayer in the Wesleyan Tradition
Feature Picture Credit: Samuel in the temple, Easy Peasy AI generated