FAITH CAPSULE: The most important reason for His calling is to follow Him.
Matthew 4:12-25
The purpose of His calling is to make us a fisher of men. Jesus called us to follow Him. He did not call us to fold up on Him and be a container or assembly where clean fish are being renewed and transferred from one assembly to another. At the time Jesus began His ministry it was with a call for people to repent because the Kingdom of heaven was at hand (Matthew 4:17). It is written in Matthew 4:18-19, “And Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. 19 Then He said to them, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.’” The same calling that Jesus had placed upon the first, second, and third disciples is the same calling He is placing upon disciples today. Have you been called? Have you been following Him or have you been folding up on Him? If you can give an account of how many fish you have been enabled by the grace of God, to catch, then yes, you must have been following Him. However, if you cannot account for a single fish by His grace, you must have been folding up on Him. The most important reason for His calling is to follow Him. God is a God of order. In Him there is orderliness and His order are to be carried out in the order of His expectation. Once, Hezekiah, the King of Judah, was in order with the command of God. Later, he placed himself out of order and became sick and near to death. As a result he consulted Isaiah. In the book of 2 Kings 20:1, it is written, “In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to Him, ‘Thus says the LORD: set your house in order; for you shall die, and not live’” The point here is that, to be out of His calling is to be out of order. Also, to be out of order is to set up a date with death. God’s order is not limited to any particular area of life. Have you in anyway taken your steps out of His order, or you are just in the middle of it? It is never too late for one to turn back from one’s ways into His ways. Hezekiah saw the glimpse of death but he turned it around when he returned into the order of God.
Prayer for today: Ask God for the grace to follow Him fully.