Live Worthy of Your Calling

“I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.  Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”

Ephesians 4:1-2

My friend Linnae invited us to read Ephesians with her this week so I thought I would jump in.

This scripture is one of those that I know and can probably recite, and yet today I let it sink a little deeper.

“live worthy of the calling you have received”

That sounds like a pretty big statement.  What does living up to my calling look like?  I guess I first need to make sure I understand the calling God has on my life.  And if God has given me a calling, which He claims that he has, what does it mean to live up to that?

I think the next verse gives us a few suggestions:

  • completely humble (as if humble weren’t enough, it’s emphasized by the word “completely”)
  • patient
  • bearing with one another in love

Ok, I think I already have three strikes!

What’s the calling God has on your life?  What does it mean for you to live worthy of your calling?

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5 comments

  • Josh April 17, 2009  

    Awesome challenge to start the day. Ouch. This reminds me that Scripture is so clear & so hard to practice on my own. I need Him to truly accomplish His plans!

  • Linnae Hoppe April 17, 2009  

    Love this! Love Ephesians! We were actually talking about this at community group Wednesday night.

    I think first and foremost, our calling is this: “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” Eph 1

    Be holy and blameless… He CHOSE us to be holy and blameless. I have to remind my self first of all, that He chose me.. it is not longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. This is my first calling.. to know Him

    Sometimes I overspiritualize “my calling”. So it’s so good to just know that I have hope in being called to Him and that’s where my identity comes from.

    However, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you”. I think that He does give us all special callings.. and there is so much hope in that! I know without a shadow of a doubt that God has called me for this time to be in Dallas serving Going Beyond Ministries, and there is so much hope to that!!

    So, for me, in this time, I know that I need to be obedient and serve with all of my heart and energy. It’s such a good feeling to know that I am exactly where He wants me to be!

    And I’ll stop now =)

  • Melissa Irwin April 17, 2009  

    I have been soaking in Ephesians lately myself. I love this verse. It gives me so much hope that these attributes are possible…even though I’m still not there.

  • Jenni Catron April 17, 2009  

    @Linnae – girl, you can preach! 🙂

  • John Arnold April 18, 2009  

    Bumping into this was very timely for me. For the last couple of months I have been starting my work day with about 20 minutes of prayer. I have been praying with a pen in hand, listening for the little nudges that come through my devotional reading and prayers. Afterwords, I try to act on anything I have written as immediately as possible. For me acting on things, being obedient immediately is so necessary to living worthy. Thank you for the reminder from scripture to do so with humility, patience and love.

    I am finding I have had to scrap a lot of my to-do list to following God’s calling in my life for that day…that moment, but it always seems perfect in the moment. In regards to identifying God’s calling I highly recommend this little practice of just praying with pen in hand to capture it when it comes. Thank you for your post.