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Our True Calling

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Our True Calling

8 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

“For Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created” (Revelation 4:11b).

This text is part of the heavenly doxology given by the twenty and four elders before the throne of God. Leaving the context further untouched, let us listen to the instruction which this doxology gives us for our daily life. If you belong to the “created things,” then this text applies to you, whoever you are. Whether you are young or old, gifted or ungifted, successful or unsuccessful, rich or poor, in this text God is giving you the direction and content of your life.

My dear young friends, most of us have been pampered by an exceptional material prosperity. We have grown up in a society which is poisoned with that spirit which sees the world as a big playground instead of as a battlefield. Hence, as we move from the summer season and enter the season of school and work, it will be useful to meditate on this text. Not only when we are young, however, is it necessary for us to be mindful of this truth. Therefore read on, even though I am directing myself mainly to the youth.

Fallen man doesn’t agree with this truth. Far from it! Even President Clinton appears to have no regard for this Word of God. When asked about the meaning of life, his answer was, “We don’t really have to know this meaning. We just have to feel good about ourselves.” Thus as long as you feel good about yourself, that is worth everything! Some people are frank enough to paste the sign on the bumper of their car, “If it feels good, do it!”

But what were we created for? The text states it simply and straight for Our ward, “For Thy pleasure. ” God fashioned each one of us and placed us in our family, classroom and school environment, or workplace for His pleasure. We were not placed on this earth just to feel good about ourselves or just to reach a high level of success. Neither was it to have fun or to live a so-called “good life.” No, God created each of us individually ( and all other things! ) for His pleasure. We were made to glorify God, to serve Him, to render honor to Him. To say it simply, we were made for God’s pleasure! We were not placed here below “to have pleasure,” but to “be a pleasure to God.”


Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and enjoy Him fully forever.


How lofty a calling this is! Take a moment to pause at this great truth. Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God and enjoy Him fully forever. The Heidelberg Catechism teaches that God created man good and after His own image that he might know His Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him in eternal happiness to glorify and praise Him. Do we live with this calling in mind? Do we pursue our studies or work with this goal in view?

Scripture subjects every aspect of our daily life to this main purpose. Even such common things as eating and drinking are included, “Whether therefore ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31). Dear friends, be mindful of this calling as you enter into a new school year or new phase of your life. Write the words created for His pleasure on the top of your daily schedule. Weigh them carefully when you pursue your studies. Consider them when you depart for the workplace. Let them guide you when you consider the various employment offers. Do not be out for the best paying job, but rather let this question guide you, “How can I best use these talents God has given me for His pleasure (and the good of my neighbor)?”

Not only our “work time,” but also our “free time” falls under this calling. Today’s world is addicted to entertainment. Everything has to be fun and exciting. There is very little place for seriousness and sober reflection on our purpose. Few donate their free time in gratuitous service to their neighbor. We are out for ourselves. The ungodly and evolutionary teaching that life is the survival of the fittest has infiltrated every level of our materialistic society. While the major part of the world is suffering and barely surviving, we are mainly entertaining ourselves!

But I am afraid, however, that this hedonistic spirit doesn’t bypass our doors. Note well that Jesus is talking about the church when He states in Matthew 24:12 that “because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” The word which Jesus uses in the original is the agape love. That is the love of self-giving. That is the love which flows even when the other is, becomes, or acts unlovable. It is the love which God displays to unlovable sinners. In other words, Jesus predicted that the exercise of true and deepest love will be virtually non-existent in the latter days. Cold love is a limp love. It talks much but it acts little.

Jesus illustrated this agape love so touchingly when He stooped down to wash the feet of the disciples. How unlovable were the disciples at that moment! They were arguing about who of them should be considered the greatest (Luke 22:24). One wasn’t participating in this unholy squabble. Rising from His seat, He took off His outer garment. Next He crawled over the floor with a towel and a bowl of water, washing the feet of His disciples, doing the work commonly done by slaves. After He was finished, He gave the application, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13).

Truly, dear youth, that life which is a life of service to God and your neighbor is the only life which affords true pleasure. The secret of this text is that once you may live as a “pleasure to God” you will have real pleasure! The greatest happiness is found when we obey the calling of God. Little does the world know that the most satisfying pleasure is found in obedience to Jesus’ words, “If any man come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” Certainly, this might involve giving up glorious opportunities of success in this world. To live to God’s pleasure may call for sacrificing earthly comforts and pleasures, “for foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head” (Matthew 8:20). Moses chose “rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt” (Hebrews 11:25-26).

Wrestle on your knees with this calling. You are not placed on earth for yourself. God didn’t equip you with your various talents for yourself, but for Thy pleasure they are and were created. Then it really doesn’t matter what position you reach in this life. A mother sweeping her kitchen floor with her heart directed to God glorifies God more than the successful career woman who seeks her own glory.


The greatest happiness is found when we obey the calling of God.


When the Holy Spirit opens our eyes for the misdirected spirit of our heart, we at once lose all pleasure in ourselves. How loathsome then we see ourselves to be when the truth dawns that we miss our divine purpose altogether. Be assured, friends, where the Spirit works savingly, the desire becomes, “O that my ways were directed to keep Thy precepts diligently” (Psalm 119:5). Then the confession will be uttered in truth, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. O Lord, correct me, turn me, teach me Thy way and cause me to walk in Thy statutes. Grant me grace to so order and direct my whole life, my thoughts, words, and actions, that Thy Name may never be blasphemed, but rather honored and praised on my account.”

Who are the people in whom the Lord taketh pleasure? One was Enoch. He had this testimony before the Lord took him away, “that he pleased God” (Hebrews 11:5). Perhaps this example discourages you, for who can stand in Enoch’s shadow? Well, another example is given in Psalm 147:11, “The LORD taketh pleasure in them that fear Him, in those that hope in His mercy.” Think of young Joseph in the house of Potiphar, of Ruth the Moabite on the field of Boaz, of young Samuel in the ungodly surroundings at the tabernacle, of the twenty-year-old king Josiah who purged Judah and Jerusalem, and of Daniel and his three friends at Babylon’s court. Can your name be listed also?

How could the Lord take pleasure in them? Were they perfectly pleasing to Him at all times? Far from it! Paul let us in on how they felt about themselves, “Wretched man that I am” (Read Romans 7). If they were not even pleasing to themselves, much less would God be pleased with them. The only reason that God took pleasure in these displeased self-pleasers was that they lived by faith out of the account of Another, the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom God is well pleased.

Therefore, “without faith” it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6). Dear young friends, with all you have and may accomplish, do you have such faith already?

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Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 augustus 1997

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's

Our True Calling

Bekijk de hele uitgave van vrijdag 1 augustus 1997

The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's