More on Calling

A follow up to my post on God’s calling on 6/2

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While reading' My Utmost for His Highest' today I think some of your questions / concerns about 'Calling' are addressed by today's devotion (6/3).

These items speak to me because they are in line with what I have learned and what I believe.

There are two items that I underlined in the piece that assist us in our relationship with Jesus - intimacy and spiritual growth. The more we grow spiritually (by using the Spiritual Disciplines or whatever helps us grow closer to God) the more intimate we become with God. The greater the intimacy we have with God the more we understand what God wants us to do for Him.

And to make this work we have to yield or submit to God. It seems that the biggest difficulties we have with God is the battle over who is in control - us or God

I think our calling is all about what God wants us to do for Him (love God and love others) and intimacy with God helps us understand and do that.

Read the piece (I have copied it below) and let me know if this helps.

‘My Utmost for His Highest’ excerpt

“The Secret of the Lord” – 6/3/2012June 3, 2012

The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him . . . —Psalm 25:14

What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)—that we catch the secrets of God? What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.

“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us. If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”