Sometimes we speak about missionaries or ministers as people who have a "calling" from God. While that's true, there's a danger it leads us to think that other people don't have a calling in the same way. In fact, the Bible teaches that God has a calling and destiny for everyone on planet Earth, if we are only willing to listen to Him and obey Him. It's not only certain occupations that deserve to be called a "vocation." Any job or task that God calls us to do is a worthy vocation for the kingdom of God.So here's a question for you: what was Abraham's calling? What important task or vocation did God choose him to accomplish on earth? Yes, we know that God called him in Genesis chapter 12 to leave his own land and travel to another country. But after he arrived there, after he began to see the fulfilment of God's promises in his life…. what calling did God entrust to him for the remainder of his life on earth?
If you weren't able to answer that question confidently, the answer might well be something different from what you'd expect, but in Genesis chapter 18, a chapter that finds God sharing His most secret plans with Abraham, the way a man would share with a close friend (vs 17), we find that Abraham's calling was one of the most vital vocations known to mankind. In verse 19, God says:
I have chosen Abraham and singled him out, so that he will direct his children and their families to keep the way of the Lord, by doing what is right and just.
Yes, that's it. Whether you're a mum or a dad, this is the most crucial calling you'll ever know. It was Abraham's main task and vocation in life: to teach his children who God is and how we can can live fruitful lives by walking in His ways. In fact, it was so important, that God made it a condition of Abraham's receiving God's promises, as you can read right at the end of verse 19.
Even if you're not a biological parent; if you relate to children or teenagers because you're their grandparent, their school teacher or their Sunday school teacher, you will quite possibly never do anything more important in life than teaching the emerging generation how to know and obey God. You may do many other things in life, and you may fulfil other God-given callings that seem more noteworthy in the world's eyes… but perhaps none of those achievements will have quite the same long-lasting impact as that of teaching your children to know and love God.
Even if it happens sometimes that those children or grandchildren or students don't chose to follow God for themselves right away, our prayers can also play a powerful role in granting them more time and saving them from disaster. And so it happened that, as Abraham gazed out over the plain to the place where he had dialogued with God in prayer (Genesis 18: 20 - 33), as he gazed in the early morning light at the columns of smoke rising from Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19: 27 - 28), the Bible makes a short commentary on the power of Abraham's calling: vs 28 - God had listened to Abraham's request and kept Lot safe, removing him from disaster.Never underestimate your vocation. Teaching children the ways of God, and crying out faithfully for them in prayer, may well be the most important things we ever do.
