Your True Calling

Passionately Devoted

Have you ever felt so passionately about something, you follow it with your whole heart? I’ve recently gotten into making sourdough bread. Let me be clear. I am far from a pro. The first loaf was inedible. The second loaf was close to perfection, and the third loaf was too chewy to chew. It’s been a trying process to perfect my recipe. All that to say, I quickly became a sourdough “follower” throughout this bread-making process. I spent hours on YouTube watching others make sourdough. I Googled several recipes to find just the right one. I even pieced together what others had done to make my own set of instructions. Even my Instagram feed is filled with sourdough bread baking. I care so deeply about getting my next sourdough loaf just right that I’m willing to devote hours of my life to researching, watching, and testing. 

Though this example pales in comparison to what it means to follow Jesus, it accurately depicts what being a follower looks like. In our SOAP passage today, Jesus asks His disciples to drop what they’re doing and follow Him. What happens next is even crazier. They obey Him immediately! Imagine what kind of authority Jesus spoke with for them to hear His call, give up their careers, and devote their lives to following Him. 

Can you think back to what the initial call of following Jesus looked like in your life? Maybe you had to sacrifice your dreams and desires to follow Jesus. Maybe Jesus interrupted your mundane tasks to ask you to follow Him. Maybe following Jesus has been uncomfortable or harder than you expected it would be. Whatever your story is, one thing is true. Something outside of your own strength captured your full attention and redirected your life plans to make following Jesus your greatest priority.  

Persistent Obedience

When I was in college, I was first exposed to the idea of discipleship. I was raised in a Christian home and committed my life to following Jesus when I was just seven years old. My adolescent years, however, consisted of me trying to be who everyone around me wanted me to be rather than who Jesus asked me to be. I didn’t quite comprehend the highest calling on my life – to follow Jesus above all else. Limping into college, I was tired and living a double life. My parents and teachers thought I was the “good Christian girl.” My friends and classmates thought I was the “fun party girl.” I had one foot in the world and one foot in the Christian life. 

By God’s grace, within the first month of college, a girl in my sorority heard I was wanting to grow in my walk with God. She started pursuing a discipleship relationship with me. We met weekly at a local coffee shop where she taught me how to study God’s Word and how to surrender fully to Jesus. For me, it was not an overnight, immediate change but a slow process of learning what it meant to be a disciple of Jesus before choosing to turn and follow Him.

Through the faithfulness of God’s Spirit, God’s Word, and God’s people, I spent the rest of my college years (and now the rest of my life) whole-heartedly following Jesus. Like the fishermen in the boat that we read about in our passage today, I grew to understand the importance of being immediately obedient to the calling Jesus places on my life. Just like my friend in college discipled me, Jesus taught me how to “fish for men” on my own. 

Purposeful Discipleship

I am not a mother with children of my own yet, but I have experienced being a spiritual mother. I’ve gotten to share the story of God’s grace in my life; teach the good news that Jesus Christ came to die for our sins so that we can have a relationship with God; and walk with other women as they devote themselves to following Jesus. There is no greater joy than getting a front-row seat to how God transforms someone’s heart to desire him, teaches them to be obedient to His Word, and gives them tools to make disciples of their own. Whether you have children of your own in your house or you are around others who are younger than you or a few steps behind you in their walk with Christ, God’s calling for you is to make disciples with those around you.

So, what does it look like to make disciples of Jesus? It starts with simply abiding with Him. If you have decided to follow Jesus and have a relationship with Him, you are ready to partner with Him in making disciples. Just like I spent hours researching, watching, and testing my sourdough bread recipe, you must commit to researching God’s Word, watching other faithful women who are making disciples, and testing a discipleship relationship on your own. A key part of finding someone to share your life with as a disciple is committing yourself to prayer. Through prayer, ask God to use your story to impact others’ lives, to show you who around you needs a Christian woman to help them in their walk with God, and to give you wisdom in pursuing discipleship. Being a follower of Jesus means being passionate about what He is passionate about and that includes discipleship! Take a moment now to pray about your next step in becoming a spiritual mother.