You have a special place and purpose in the Body of Christ. We all do. Each of us has been called to our purpose. Not everyone has been called to be a missionary to another people, a pastor, a teacher, an evangelist, but we have all been called to our place in the Body. We should not look at callings, such as being a pastor, as meaning that those people are somehow more important in the kingdom than others, like you and me, might be. That, my friend, is worldly thinking. Everyone is the same to the Father. The source of the power to do what He calls us to do is from Him and not ourselves. We can’t, or shouldn’t, take credit for it. Apart from God we are spiritually impotent. We are incapable of doing anything, by our own power, that has eternal significance.
The point that I want you to understand is that since you have been called to fulfill your place in the Body it is God’s desire that you be faithful in that calling, whatever it is. Don’t use the world’s standards to judge your value in the kingdom of God. Let your light shine and trust God to use it for His glory. We each have a God-ordained place and purpose. To fulfill our spiritual destiny on this earth, we must be willing to trust God ― or as a pastor friend of mine says, “To faith God.”
God calls whom He wills, for what He wills, and sends where He wills. Our part is to obey.
“God places His saints where they will bring the most glory to Him, and we are totally incapable of judging where that may be.” ― Oswald Chambers
God has a specific and personal purpose for you. Your greatest challenge is to believe that God can use you for His glory and eternal plan. How He uses you is up to Him, not you.
Think
of ways that God has used you in the past or present, no matter how big or
small you might think it is. Perhaps
you should write them down as a reminder.
You
are useful to God for His eternal purposes.
As significant as salvation is, that is not the end of the story. You may not be called to preach, but each of
us has a place in the Body of Christ. And it is not sitting in the pew on the
back row. The common call makes it
possible to be part of the Body of Christ. The specific call results in God designating you to be a specific part
of the Body.“For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. – 1 Corinthians 12:12-14
Think about what makes you the same as all other Christians before God. One part of the Body of Christ more important than another part of the Body.
“If the foot should say,
‘Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,’ is it therefore not of the
body? And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I am not of the
body,’ is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where would
be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? But now
God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased.”
– 1 Corinthians 12:15-18
“And the eye cannot say to the
hand, ‘I have no need of you’; nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need
of you.’ No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are
necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable,
on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater
modesty, but our presentable parts have no need.” – 1 Corinthians 12:21-23
There is a difference between our roles in the Body – but no difference in the importance of each role – they are the same.
Think of it this way. Jesus is the mind. The Holy Spirit is the heart. Christians are the body parts – each having its function.
"But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.” – 1 Corinthians 12:24-27
It is God and not you who decides what it is you are supposed to do in the Body. Think about why is that important from each of us to know and remember.
Something to think about:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” – Jeremiah 29:11
Most Christians don’t think a lot about being more than saved and the challenges of personal holiness associated with being a Christian. That is really only the beginning of realizing our new life in Christ. That thinking is the way we think as infants in our faith. God wants us to be mature in our faith, which means that we must go beyond the comfortable and into the places were faith is waiting.
By Faith Alone By His Grace Alone And For His Glory Alone
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