The Summons To Your Day
“I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service,” Ephesians 4:1 Amplified Bible
Paul is speaking to the Ephesians but he is also speaking to you and me today as well. He is making a strong appeal for us to live according to the call on our lives. Think about what Paul is suggesting and defining for us. We are to live each day worthy of the divine calling that is on us. We don’t often think about our day as having a divine call to it. We may feel like there is a divine call upon our lives overall and that it is manifested in certain days having a real and evident divine purpose to it, but for the most part, we consider each day to be little more than the mundane things that we see have scheduled. But that is not true. Paul is informing that we live under a divine call.
I may not feel as though there is much that is divine in my day today or my yesterday or even my last week or month. But the reality is that each one of us has a daily divine call and that means there is an expectation of certain things He purposes in our life each day which will advance His kingdom, strengthen us, minister to others, and glorify His name. That is may not what I thought as I started today. I was probably just looking at the scheduled events on my calendar, hoping to be able to survive the day. I should expect today has more than just survivability; I should expect the power of the divine call on my life for today.
Instead of just seeing my day as nothing more than the events on my calendar, I should see the spiritual calendar which was scheduled by Jesus Himself for this day. Before I was even born He had prepared this spiritual schedule with the divine call He has on me and my life.
Paul ends the verse with the suggestion that we behave in a fashion that is a credit to the call that is on our day. View your day as a summons from God. When I get a summons from the courts for jury duty, it is a summons from a higher authority that I must respond to. I cannot assume that it was intended for someone else because I can see my name on the summons. In like fashion, we are summoned by God every day by His divine call for our lives and our day. Look beyond the physical calendar and see the spiritual calendar that was written by His hand for you personally, and expect great things.
J Todd Hostetler