Who Are You Called to Be?


By Deborah Bell

We are over four months into the coronavirus pandemic. How are you holding up? Are you continuing to face restrictions on normal activities that were central to your life? Have you had to adopt new roles? Have you had to change jobs or are you still jobless? Is your business thriving or failing? Are you able to be with family and friends or are you isolated from many that you love?
All of these changes may have affected the way that you see yourself. When we are home alone, facing who we are on the inside can be difficult for us. Do you like who you are? Are you content being you, without all of the rush and activity? 
In spite of how we feel, each of us can be encouraged that we are exactly who our creator wanted us to be, a work in progress. We are the essence of who He wanted us to be since He knit us together in the wombs of our mothers and is hourly working in us to perfect us according to His good pleasure.
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. Psalm 139:13-16
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:10
For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
And whether or not we have received Christ or believed in His name, God has placed the same value on each one of us, the price of His Son’s life. But through our choice, we can also become a child of God and live in the security and affirmation of that truth. We are His children with a promise for what we can and will become through Him.
See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! ….. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I John 3:1-2
So, no matter how many people have told you that they hate you or that you are worthless or that no one likes you, YOU ARE WORTHY for you are a child of God. No matter how many times that you have told yourself that people hate you or that you are worthless or that no one likes you, YOU ARE WORTHY because God loves you. It might be time to ask God who you are and who you are meant to be.
You are a child of the living God. You are a disciple of the living God. You are a servant of the living God. You are loved by the living God.
You are exactly who God has made you to be. You are exactly who God wants you to be. All of your strengths, all of your weaknesses, and all of your personality traits all make you exactly who God needs you to be in this place and in this time in His Kingdom. You are not perfect, but YOU ARE being transformed into the image of God, with ever-increasing glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).
You are a disciple-maker. You are called to call others further up and further in: further up and further in to their relationship with Christ; further up and further in to obedience to His Word; and further up and further in to the dream that God has placed on their hearts.  You are called to encourage, exhort, and rebuke others in order to enable them to throw off the sin that so easily entangles so that they can run the race that God has ordained for them (Hebrews 12:1). 
You are an intercessor. You are called to pray for those who are struggling against the sin that so easily entangles. You are called to pray for those who cry out for help. You are called to pray for those who are throwing off sin.
Maybe you are also a dream-maker, called to help people define their dreams and then to help them fulfill those dreams through their submission to the Holy Spirit and through their obedience to the Word of God. Maybe you are called to invest your talents, your gifts, your energy, and your time into those who have gone all-in and all-out and are pursuing a radical obedience to Christ – whoever they may be.
Maybe you are also a servant leader. Maybe you are called to serve those who are serving Christ with all that they are. Maybe you are called to do that which needs to be done to enable others to do the tasks that God has called them to do. Maybe you are called to come alongside of others to lend a helping hand in order to fulfill the will of God.
Maybe you are meant to speak the light of truth into dark or difficult situations. Truth exposes sin and is evidence of God’s love and kindness that leads to repentance. Truth spoken is not hatred or a sign of judgment; it is an opportunity for God’s people to evaluate their own lives in light of the truth - an opportunity for obedience, repentance, and growth - an opportunity to become more like Jesus. 
Maybe you are called to love people, to carry their burdens, to carry their pain, to rejoice in their victories, and to mourn their defeats. 
Who are you called to be?

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