SHOULD REMAIN

“Each one should remain in the situation he was in when he was called.”

1 Corinthians 7:20

God’s providence is undoubtedly perfect, yet we treat God like a Magic 8 Ball... violently shaking and manipulating until the desired answer appears.

Where things run amuck is when we being to fiddle with the levers, dials, and switches of life. We frequently do so in an effort to advance our own agendas. We are rarely so bold or candid to admit such autonomous schemes. Rather, we disguise them with statements like, “I feel as though God is calling me,” or “I believe this is God’s will for me.”

If that particular thing doesn’t have an immediate and profound evangelistic and missional agenda, then it is doubtfully God’s divine call or will for our life.

Instead, it is a personal decision which we have made, albeit potentially through much prayer, counsel, and reflection - or possibly without. Whether you take the job in Albuquerque or Orlando is of no consequence to God. Whether you marry this person or that will not alter the fabric of God’s masterpiece.

What matters at the very root of those decisions boils down to this: Why? After all, God told Abram to go blindly to a place unknown to him, Hosea was instructed to marry a whore, Samuel was told to anoint a disowned shepherd boy, and Paul was driven to the edges of the known world.

Why are you striving, considering, or attempting that thing? Is it for the money, the prestige, the power, the security, personal gain or other worldly benefits? Or is it because in doing so you honestly see greater opportunities for involvement and investment in the promotion and proclamation of the Gospel of Christ to the ends of the earth?

The circumstances of my salvation will forever be deeply entrenched in my mind. I found working for large corporations and government agencies an exhausting and frustrating experience. I found the bureaucracy, and sloth-rewarding cultures, which those entities often foster only slightly preferable over a prison chain gang. Eventually, this led to the launch of a sole-proprietorship endeavor, which in turn led to my salvation.

“Each one should remain in the situation he was in when he was called.”

Just prior to that verse, Paul wrote that there is no inherent value in the doing of anything (using circumcision or uncircumcision as an example), but rather “Keeping God’s commandments is what matters.” Paul goes on to note that there is no inherent value in our station either. Whether slave or free, master or servant “For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman. Conversely, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave.”

God has uniquely crafted you as a tool of truth, love, and blessing. For a select few the gift is abundantly evident as a world class talent in sport, music, administration or finance. But for the rest of us - we often struggle. Here or there? This or that? Now or later?

We pray for God to open doors that have only been sealed shut by our own fear. Or we pray for Him to close doors that are divine opportunities for growth and sanctification. We often wait for the “green light” that will never come rather than asking God if the “red light” is of His design or our fabrication.

Shortly after Paul instructs his audience to “remain in the situation he was in when he was called,” he writes, “I have become all things to all men, so that by all possible means I might save some of them. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize.”

Remaining in the situation you were in never means settling for anything less than the unmitigated joy of participating in the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ. God never intends or intended for you to remain in anything short of the race for the prize. Not an abusive relationship, not in a marriage of neglect or abandonment, and certainly not in a job or position that has you frozen with fear.

He’s called us to the reckless abandon of authentic faith. Jesus said the harvest is plenty and the workers are few. Many have surrendered to a dank prison of our own construction or choice - that of familiarity. Most only move when the “green light” of our own desires stir, at which point we falsely attribute it to God’s will.

His mission is clear and unwavering.

His imperative is unquestionable.

The station you were in when called is that of an heir to the eternal and almighty King of Heaven. That is the station of all the children of God born of the Spirit.

Act like it.

Now live that out and stop waiting for some mysterious “green light” of your own - or someone else's - invention.

Blessings,

-Kevin M. Kelley

aMostUnlikelyDisciple.com