Somewhere along the way, after a person becomes a Christian, he or she begins to hear the phone ringing.
I’m talking about the phone that is embedded into the soul of every human, a phone wired to connect with God.
It’s true that most people in this world perpetually ignore the ringing and have done so since adolescence.
But for the new believer — one who realized that ignoring the ringing is an eternally bad choice — the spiritual phone’s audibility continues being used by God for another very important reason.
In the daily Bible reading for today, Ephesians 2 describes how we are saved by God’s grace so that we will do godly acts of service that honor God and help others.
One of the most important ways that we can serve God is to answer the ringing phone regarding the call to share our faith with others who need hope that only the Lord can provide.
This passage was also part of today’s Bible reading:
“I, the LORD, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” (Isaiah 42:6-7).
Over the years, I’ve grown in the spiritual maturity with which I responded to this verse.
My early adult years found me appreciating the fact that God loves me and saved me, yet I hoped to live out this verse vicariously by helping the preacher fulfill it in whatever church I attended at the time.
Later, when convicted by God to leave my newspaper career and enter seminary, the promise of God’s nurture while answering the ringing phone was quite meaningful to me. I knew that He had placed a call on my life and I was pursuing it. But I was still learning to lean on Him for wisdom and strength as I weaned myself of relying too much on me.
I’m better now than I was in terms of “leaning not on my own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5-6), but I also know that I need constant reminders of His call, His leading, His protection, His ministering through me in order to shine His love and His Word to people who need His hope of salvation.
This is the beauty of this amazing passage.
God calls us.
He guides us.
He protects us.
He transforms us.
So that He can work through us.
It’s because He wants others to join us.
Forever.
When you hear the Spirit’s phone ringing, dear friend, please don’t ignore it.
There’s an eternal abundance of good awaiting you and others on the back side of answering it.
As always, I love you
Martin
