Surrendering to God’s Call for Your Life

”God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Whether we know it or not, in life, God is calling each of us to a special vocation, one he has chosen just for us.  But 2 Thessalonians 2:14 reminds us that all people, through the Gospel, are called to share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Often, though, we go through life spending our time, the most valuable resource that God gives us, worrying and being concerned about all the wrong things, especially things that don’t lead us to the glory of the Lord. They may not necessarily be bad things, but they are things that, in the big picture of eternity, really don’t matter much. These are the things in life that don’t strongly push us or others away from God, but also don’t draw us or our neighbor closer to him either. We're just burning daylight, doing busy work, coasting through each day, while God wants us to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God understands, however, that in our fallen human state, with the influence of the world and the temptations of the enemy constantly swirling all around us, it is difficult for us to keep our focus on him. It is hard for us to keep our eyes on the prize of heaven which is found in and through the Lord Jesus. In the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, Jesus is asked, “Lord, will only a few people be saved?”  He answers, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”  

What does Jesus mean by this? How do we get strong enough? 

First, we need to realize that God doesn’t expect perfection from us. In fact, he doesn’t ask that of us at all, because he knows we are not capable of perfection. He loves us anyway and wants us to continually grow stronger in our relationship with him because he wants to share his life with us, he wants to share his glory with us, and he wants us to be with him in eternity. To do this, Jesus says we have to be strong, but we must understand that the strength needed to enter through his narrow gate, the strength needed to focus our life on him doesn’t come from our own talents or abilities. The strength needed to ensure the Lord knows us and will open the doors of heaven to us when we knock comes only through a life of humble surrender to his love.  

From a worldly point of view, that doesn’t make any sense, but it is the only path to God. The more we focus our heart, mind, and soul on Jesus in our daily life, the more we are truly able to surrender to his love and enter into his life. Yes, we are going to make mistakes, we are going to mess up just about every day, but in all humility, without making excuses for our mistakes we have to acknowledge our sins, ask God’s forgiveness, repent, turn to him, and change our life.  

That’s why he gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation, so that we would have a way to redirect our life back to the narrow path of living according to his will, no matter how many times we stray. To avoid despair when we continually fail God, we need to remember that God knows we will stray from time to time.  He knows that there will even be times when we willingly choose evil over his love and he understands that becoming spiritually mature, becoming spiritually strong, does not happen overnight. He knows that “The spiritual life is a process of being formed by the Spirit of God to the image of Christ for the sake of others.”  

The spiritual life is a process. It takes time; that’s why we must keep turning back to the Lord every day, grateful for God’s gifts of patience, grace, love, and mercy that open our hearts to him. Jesus points this out very clearly in the Gospel when he says, “For behold, some are last who will be first, and some are first who will be last.”

Brothers and sisters, God has put all of us here in this place and in this time for a reason. He has a mission for each one of us to accomplish during the short time we are in this life.  But the only way we will ever not only find out what our mission is, but also carry it out, is by totally surrendering ourselves, body, mind, and soul to the will of God. In life, this is a constant struggle, but the stronger we become in the Lord, the better able we are to chip away little by little each day at the things that separate us from God, thus allowing us to complete the mission he has given us.  

My friends, let us continue along the narrow way of Jesus with confidence, knowing, as St. Paul said, that God has called us, he has called us, through the Gospel, to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen.