God's Call

Yesterday and today I've been thinking a lot about God's call for our lives, as in what He has called us to pursue, who He has called us to minister to, where He has called us to live. Is it possible for God to change His mind about a call for us? Or even scarier than that, can we mistake something else as God's call?

As far as the first question goes, I believe this is an absolute no. Not only is God unchanging, he is all knowing.

Psalm 102:25-27 says this:

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth,
     and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you will remain;
     they will all wear out like a garment.
Like clothing you will charge them
     and they will be discarded.
But you remain the same,
     and your years will never end.

Psalm 139:1-6 says this:

O LORD, you have searched me
     and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
     you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
     you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
     you know it completely, O LORD.
You hem me in - behind and before;
     you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
     too lofty for me to attain.

God knows us from the inside out. As our Creator, He knows more about us than we do - He knows our gifts, our weaknesses, our thoughts, our desires. Paul says in Romans 12 that each one of us makes up a part of the body of Christ. Naturally, each body part must have a different role in order for the body to function and work together. If the body was made up of thousands of eyes or feet, how could it function? No - instead we must each use the gifts God has given us to make up a unique and life-giving part of Christ's body. Through our gifts, God has called each of us to make up a unique part - a part that no one else can replace.

The biggest example of God's unchangingness (is that a word?) is God sending His son to die for our sins. God didn't send Jesus as an afterthought, as a "whoops, Israel failed me again, I guess I should come up with something better!" Not at all! From the very beginning, God's plan was to save His whole creation through His one and only son. And what a beautiful plan that is!

God's call to us, to love God with all our heart and soul and to love our neighbor (Matthew 23:37-38), is constant. Through this call and through our gifts, following God will naturally put us on the path we are supposed to be on (Although this path could involve multiple places to live, people to minister to, etc - and it often does! That's the hard part!).

One thing we can definitely fall victim to, though, is mistaking something else for God's call. Most often I think of this as a type of theatrics - something designed to really make us emotional and make us feel as though the Spirit has moved us. Some churches use tactics like these to reel people in - intense music and lights, powerful videos, etc. I'm not saying these things are bad in themselves as long as the Truth of the Gospel is being preached. We just have to be careful that we're worshipping God, not the techniques and tactics that so often seem to intensify our feelings.

If we are questioning whether a call is from God or not, we can do a few things: Pray, Compare it to scripture, and ask for advice from other members of Christ's body who are praying/reading for us. Hopefully, that will allow you to discern what God is truly calling you to do :)

Whatever decisions you end up making, whether you feel God called you or not, we can rest assured knowing that if we try our hardest to follow Him, we will end up in the right place. After looking at God's amazing plan of salvation and redemption through Jesus, it's hard NOT to trust His love and judgement :)