PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body as a holy and living sacrifice to you.
Jesus, We belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Romans 1:1–7 (NIV)
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his earthly life was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him we received grace and apostleship to call all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith for his name’s sake. And you also are among those Gentiles who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be his holy people:
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
CONSIDER THIS
What is your calling? People expend so much energy, throughout their lives, trying to figure out what exactly is their calling in life. We tend to think it is a specific career or vocation or some particular job. Many spend much of their lives feeling as though they have missed their calling. You feel stuck in a job you can do but don’t love. More challenging, you spend a lot of time wondering if God wants you to be doing something other than what you are presently doing—like maybe you are supposed to go into “the ministry.” College students live in enormous anxiety about needing to figure out what they are going to do with their lives before they graduate. I tell my own collegiate children regularly to relax—Jesus didn’t even get started until he was thirty.
I’ve got good news for all of you. You don’t need to figure out your calling. It’s already set in stone. Did you catch it in today’s text? It is right there in verse 6.
. . . you . . . are called to belong to Jesus Christ.
This is your full time vocation. It is your 100 percent job 100 percent of the time. You are called to belong to Jesus Christ. Even better, this is your identity. You are called to belong to Jesus Christ. He tells us who we are and why we are here. Every possible question and quandary in life can be answered if approached from this singular starting place. It’s why we begin in this place of consecration every single day on the Wake-Up Call—Jesus, I belong to you. Promise me that you will never, ever, ever, skip that. Yesterday’s consecration is not sufficient for today’s calling.
Our calling must include and inform our job or career but it is much larger and far more comprehensive than our work week. It’s why the whole concept of retirement is an absurdity in the kingdom of Jesus. Calling transcends retirement. Sure, you can quit your job, but you can’t retire from your calling. In fact, I call the years between the ages of sixty and eighty the “kingdom prime.” And over eighty is “kingdom super prime.”
I once heard a Mother Teresa story I will never forget. A young adult showed up at Mother Teresa’s convent to work with lepers. He was put in a back office processing documents and records. Very unhappy, the man somehow got to Mother with his grievance. He said to her, “Mother, I came here from across the world to work with lepers, and all I am doing here is paperwork. My calling is to serve lepers.” She lovingly yet sternly replied, “Son, your calling is not to serve lepers. Your calling is to belong to Jesus. Now get back to the paperwork.”
THE PRAYER
Jesus, we belong to you. Yes, Jesus, I belong to you. From this place we can go many places but until we get to this place, though we may go everywhere we will have gone nowhere. Jesus, open up the message and the meaning of this ancient letter—perhaps the most significant letter ever written in the history of the world. Take us to Rome and then translate Rome to our home. And yes, Jesus, you are our home for that is what it means to belong to you. Praying in your name, amen.
THE QUESTION
Jesus I belong to you (. ? !) How do you punctuate that sentence in your life—with a period, a question mark, an exclamation mark, a comma? Say more.
THE HYMN
Let’s start this series with one of our favorite songs, “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus.” You know the tune! It is hymn 670 in our Seedbed hymnal, Our Great Redeemer’s Praise.
For the Awakening,
J. D. Walt
P. S. Join Us In Journaling
Make this journey personal, and make it analog! Get the journal to help you get the Word of God in you. Seedbed has produced a fine journal in which you can write guided reflections five days a week as you read through these entries online. Find it in our store here.
Subscribe to get this in your inbox daily and please share this link with friends.
6 Responses
JD, I’m looking forward to this directed journey through the letter to the church at Rome with my companions here at Seedbed. In answer to today’s question: “ Take my life and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.”
Being our calling in through, for, and by Jesus, and Jesus did nothing outside of God’s will, our calling is to live in God’s will. His will is our purpose.
What is God’s will for us?
1 Peter 2:15
For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
John 6:40
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
Hebrews 13:20-21
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
Possibly, our calling as saints, ambassadors, and children of God, who are the called of Christ, is not so much what we do but how we do whatever we are doing.
Staying 💪’n Christ
Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Jesus, I belong to You . . .
(O Lord, help me to let You fully control the keyboard of my life every moment of every day and night so that You can continually write whatever You want to on the tablet of my heart and mind and freely direct my thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors according to Your will not mine.)
I use the three dots . . . because belonging to Jesus means letting Him take the keyboard and write for as long as He wants, forever and ever.
We are called in those few verses to, faith, obedience, belonging and holiness.
My answer would be, all three punctuation marks can be used. A period because it is a statement of fact, a question mark because its needful to ask what that belong entails. And an exclamation mark for the sheer audacity of thinking we can belong if we willfully ignore the other three callings.
I feel like punctuation would change daily if it were based on my personal mood and relationship status with Christ. But… punctuation possibly should be “…” after the statement “Jesus, I belong to You…”
In my mind, the “…” means silence, waiting and stillness. When I reaffirm that I belong to Christ and that HE is my calling… perhaps I need to be silent and wait for His voice.