Matins Devotion: August 13, 2024

1 Corinthians 7:1-24

How do you know what God wants you to do with your life? If you’re struggling to know what your purpose is, what your vocation is, what your service to others should be, how do you figure that out?

Well, you don’t need to climb mountaintops to find secret answers. You don’t need to pray incessantly until the heavens part and God hands you your marching orders from above. Rather, as Martin Luther might say, you just need to touch your body to see if you still have flesh and then ask yourself, “what does God require of this flesh? What does God require of this body and mind and heart? Who depends upon my provision, my strength, my service, my wisdom and charity?” That’s whom you’re called to serve. That’s your vocation. That’s your purpose in life. That’s what God is telling you in 1 Corinthians 7 this morning.

There are no secrets with vocation. If you’re married, stay married and serve your family. Show love and devotion to your spouse. Fulfill the needs of the one God has given you in marriage. Serve your children, protect them, pray for them, teach them, guide them. If you’re unmarried, serve the church in ways that those who are married often can’t. Befriend the lonely, the forsaken, the forgotten. Serve those who need help at times when those with children or spouses can’t come to their aid. When you have fewer burdens, pray more, give more, encourage more. Don’t think you need to find a spouse or build a family in order to be of value to the family of God.

Jesus Christ is equally the Savior of the married and the unmarried, the Jew and the gentile, the old and the young. He won equal forgiveness for all in His death and resurrection. And He loves all now. So you don’t need to undergo divine transformations or find secret answers or hear the voice of the Father rattling from the heavens to know how to please the Lord. The works God has prepared for you to do are all found in the faces of those God has given you. Serve them as Christ has served you.