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#DailyDevotion Living Worthy Of Your Calling

#DailyDevotion Living Worthy Of Your Calling

Eph. 4:1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

 

Paul, a prisoner for the Lord, urges us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which we have been called. Now first note, Paul is a prisoner, literally. He sitting in some prison cell of the Roman empire for his testimony about Jesus Christ. You see his calling and our calling at this point are the same. We have been called to be disciples of Christ Jesus, children of the heavenly Father, citizens of the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus.

 

The manner worthy of that calling is the cross of Jesus. Jesus said if we would be his disciples we much pick up our cross and follow him. That cross is going to involve some suffering on our part. Now Jesus suffered that we might be forgiven of our sins, our relationship with the Father restored and we might have peace with God. That occurred because of Christ’s sacrifice for you on the cross.

 

Now in your daily life, even as Christ died for his enemies, who were sinners, ungodly and who hated him, Christ ask you to do the same for your enemies. That is your calling as his disciples. Your death is to forgive those who sin against you. It is to do good to those who hate you. You cross is to love those who are your enemies.

 

And with your fellow Christians he calls us to have humility, gentleness, patience and bear with one another (put up with each other) in love. None of this is always easy. There is a reason it is called a cross.  But we are called to imitate our Lord Jesus Christ in his great love for us we are to do the same for the people we encounter in our lives. Jesus did it for the world. We only have to do it for our little worlds.  To have humility is to put others first, to seek to serve rather than to be served. For some it may be to allow themselves to be helped by others.

 

We should try to be gentle with patience toward our fellow Christians. They don’t know what we’re going through and we don’t always know what they’re going through, but who couldn’t use a little gentleness and patience directed at them by those they’re going to be spending eternity with.  Remember the Lord calls the weak, the unclean, sinners, those who are nothing and a hosts of other people we might rather not hang around with, just like you. So just as the Lord Jesus puts up with you so you too bear with one another.

 

Finally we are called eagerly maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. As Paul writes in just a little bit, there is only one faith, one teaching in Christ. There aren’t many interpretations all equally valid in him. We should be eager to strive for that unity in the Spirit. It is unity not of feeling, but the Spirit comes with the teaching, the Word of God. We may not always understand different parts of the Scripture in the same way but what we do understand ought to conform to the whole teaching of Scripture. That brings us peace.

 

Heavenly Father, what Paul prays for the Ephesians, may you do for us in our lives as those called by you today.  In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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Rev. Guillaume J. S. Williams, Sr.

The Reverend Guillaume Williams is the Pastor of Hope Lutheran Chapel of Osage Beach, Missouri. His pastoral ministry with Hope began in 2005 where he preaches the Christ crucified.

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