Tonight in our Bible study at Houston’s First we are going to turn our attention to calling. Calling is perhaps one of the most misunderstood parts of the Christian life. For many, calling is only something that pastors or missionaries get. For others, a calling is always something extra-ordinary…calling only happens when it is something earth shattering and crowd gathering. And for most, calling is something mysterious, hidden from us by God so that we have to hunt to find it.

Yet, while calling may be any of those things it is often none of them. A simple way to explain calling is the move from praying for to praying with. As Christians, we are commanded to be in prayer and most of us have a long list of things we are praying for. Our church asks us to pray for a new ministry opportunity. A mission organization asks us to pray for the people they are reaching. The news reports a tragedy and we pray for those involved. A neighbor, co-worker,or whoever expresses a struggle or need in their life. The list could go on but I hope we get the point…we should be in prayer for all these things. We should have a list somewhere, by the bed, in your journal, on your phone, or in your Bible where we write all these things down and we should consistently pray for them.

But there will come a moment when praying for will not be enough. The Holy Spirit will lead you to do something,

-to be involved with a new ministry opportunity,

-involved with reaching a certain people,

-involved with responding to a tragedy,

-involved with meeting a need.

These are moments of calling. Calling is basically when we are moved by God to get involved. And we fulfill our calling in those moments when we move from praying for to praying with…when we move from asking God to provide for them and allow ourselves to be used as God’s provision.