The Call

I am reading in I Samuel chapter 3, where the Lord is calling Samuel. The Lord calls Samuel 3 times and 3 times he goes to his father Eli and says “Here I am” but Eli was not the one calling him. His father, Eli, realizes after the 3rd incident that it is the Lord calling Samuel. Eli tells Samuel to return to his room and when the Lord calls him again to say “Speak Lord, for Your Servant hears.”

Most of the time when we read this we focus on Samuel but I want to focus on Eli in this story. Had it not been for Eli telling Samuel that the Lord was trying to speak to him, would Samuel have realized it was God speaking to him? Would Samuel have answer the Lord on the fourth call? I don’t believe he would have without the guidance of Eli. In verse 7 it says Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor was the Word of the Lord yet revealed to him. So, Samuel needed guidance from Eli to open his heart to the Lord and say Lord, I am here and ready to serve you.

As Christians, sometimes our role is to just give guidance to someone to listen to the Lord. To encourage someone to follow Jesus. This could be someone who doesn’t yet know Jesus as their personal savior, someone who is a new Christian, or maybe someone who has been a Christian for years but is afraid to take that step into their purpose for God.

Sometimes “The Call” is not for us directly and instead of encouraging someone we get mad and pout. Sometimes we let the flesh get the best of us and instead of encouraging someone else, we began to question God. Do we miss our own call from God because we are so focused on everyone else? Jesus says we make up the body. The body is made up of several different organs and extremities and they all serve a different purpose. This is the same with the spiritual body.

The call maybe different for each of us but they are all important to God. His word says we each have a purpose but we have to let God decide what our purpose is. I believe a lot of Christians miss their call because they want to decide what their purpose is instead of following God’s purpose.

I believe we can all do great and mighty things for our Lord and Savior when we all work together as one body. However, the minute you start operating in the flesh you are not fulfilling your purpose. Let’s pray today that God removes this mentality from us. Let’s pray that he gives us the knowledge and wisdom to encourage others to answer their call and to be ready for our call from God. Let’s ask God to use us for his purpose and not our own.

Thank each and every one of you for reading this and I hope you all have a great day in Jesus Christ!!