FBC Morning Light – March 16, 2022

A good Wednesday morning to you. I hope your week is going well and that the Lord is using you in your particular calling in life, the vocation that you have in which you serve him.

But let me ask you, what is that calling? What is that vocation? Do you recognize it as such?

By calling I'm not talking about the idea that somewhere in the past you received this audible voice from heaven telling you, you need to go into this particular field of life, and maybe you had no thought about it whatsoever.

You were planning to be a farmer, and you got this call and the voice from heaven said,

I want you to be an insurance salesman. You weren't even heading in that direction. No, I'm not talking about that.

It's not the way God calls people today. You could look to the

Bible and say, what about these prophets? There's Jeremiah, God called him, and there's

Isaiah, and God gave this audible voice, and Samuel. Samuel was just a kid and heard this voice from heaven that God called him to this particular field.

Those are the exceptions, and the exceptions are not the rule. The normal rule is that God shapes and molds you and directs you in a particular direction.

When you realize that, you can discern the course of life that you should pursue.

For example, you may be a very artistic kind of person, that's just the way you're wired.

It's not likely that you should perceive God calling you to be a physicist.

That requires a great deal of mathematical mind thinking, that kind of thing.

That's not your bent. Normally, the way we understand our calling is that we look at our talents, the natural talents that God has given us, the direction, the bent of our life, of our interests.

I'm talking about wholesome interests, of course, and things of that nature. That can then lead us to make certain decisions regarding a calling in life.

What is your calling in life? What's your vocation? How are you doing in that? Are you successful in it?

Again, by success, I don't mean knowing all kinds of, experiencing all kinds of accolades in the field, or accumulating a great deal of wealth from your vocation.

By success, I mean you are carrying out that responsibility faithfully, and joyfully, and enthusiastically.

I think if you can do that, you understand this is the area of life God's given me to serve, and I want to serve in this area, and I'm doing so, and I'm enjoying it for the most part.

Every calling has difficulties and challenges that we don't like, but for the most part,

I'm enjoying what I'm doing, and I'm faithfully doing it. That's success.

I say all that because of this one little verse that we read in Ezra 7 and verse 10.

Ezra is a scribe, he's of the tribe of Levi, and his calling in life is to serve

God at the temple, if you will. He's to serve God in spiritual matters, in the religious things, quote -unquote.

He's called to this by virtue of his tribal connection. Early on in his life, he was directed and trained to learn and study the law.

He could have said, I'm a Levite, I've got to make the best of this,

I guess, and do what I've got to do, and then use the position or responsibility to take advantage of people, and so on and so forth.

You have some priests recorded in the Bible who did that kind of thing. That wasn't Ezra's attitude.

Ezra's attitude was, this is my calling in life, to be a scribe. Then I'm going to, and here's our verse, verse 10,

I'm going to prepare my heart to seek the law of the Lord and do it.

Now, in application of that half of the verse, I think it has a broad application to all of us who are believers in Christ.

We all should long to seek the law of the

Lord, to learn it, to understand what God's Word says, what God likes and what he's like, and then to do it.

When you approach your own Bible reading, prepare your heart to seek the law of the

Lord and to do it. When you prepare to come to church, when you gather, you're going to come to church, you're going to attend

Sunday Bible study and morning worship service, and evening service, you're coming to church, prepare your heart to seek the law of the

Lord and to do it. You may take a little bit of thought ahead of time, where you actually pray,

Lord, we're on our way to church, I open my heart to you, speak to me, challenge me, encourage me, convict me, comfort me,

I need to hear from you today, direct my steps that I may do what you would have me to do.

The first half of verse 10 has some general application to Christians as a whole, the

God's people. But more specifically, what we need to understand is,

Ezra took this course of action, of preparing his heart to seek the law of the Lord and to do it, because of his vocation, his calling in life.

He was responsible to know God's law, so he prepared his heart to do that, to know

God's law. Not just to know it intellectually, but to know it experientially, to do it.

Why was he so eager to do that, to know

God's word and to do it? The verse continues, so that he might teach statutes and ordinances in Israel, that he might fulfill his calling.

He prepared his heart to fulfill his calling. I would suggest that one of the keys to success in any vocation, any

God -called area of life and service, one key to success is to set my heart upon that particular course and then pursue it earnestly.

What has God called you to do? Don't just give into it and go along with it and get by in that calling.

Pursue it earnestly. Give your heart to it diligently, so that you can do your best in it for the glory of God and the good of his people and the good of your neighbor.

This, I think, is one of the ways in which we love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.

When we understand the calling that God has given to us, we love him by pursuing it diligently.

We love our neighbor, believers and unbelievers alike, when we pursue it diligently, because then we're fulfilling in life what

God's put us here to do. He's put us here to bring glory to him, to be a blessing to others, and to serve in his name.

May God help us to do that, whatever that vocation is. As you think about your calling today, let me encourage you to meditate on this and think about it.

Have I prepared my heart to seek this area of my life and pursue it diligently?

Our Father and our God, I pray that you would help us to fulfill the calling in life that you've given to us, whatever that is, and we pray it in Jesus' name.

Have a good rest of your Wednesday, and I trust God will bless you richly as you fulfill your calling today.