Abba,

Many things stand out from these opening verses of Romans.  But what captures my eye at this moment is the simple word, “called.”

It has the tendency to be overlooked.  Ignored.  Down played.  And yet, there is a profound insight and truth to be gained from taking the time to consider it.

Paul was  called to be an apostle.

We are  called to belong to Jesus.

We are called to be saints.

These belong to us by invitation. 

Not by merit or achievement.

Paul was rather brutally enlisted into the service of You as King on that Damascus road.  The blindness and subsequent vision problems for the remainder of his life were a harsh wake up call to the spiritual blindness he had once lived with.  Apart from your intervention, your invitation, your calling, he would have continued as all the blind Pharisees before him, who rejected the very Messiah that they were supposed to herald, had done.

In the same way, every believer is  called to belong to you, called to be saints, set apart by you, for you, and to you.  Ours is a position the same as Paul’s.  Each of our awakening stories are different and may not be as harsh and brutal as Paul’s but they are nonetheless a calling.  We would not claim you, know you, or enjoy you had YOU not extended the calling, the invitation to come.  What a grace this is!  Even when the calling is heard and extended in a hard way, it is a grace because the alternative is so much worse. 

It’s simply this for me today, Abba.  I want to reflect upon the calling your grace made to me.  For it was that calling that has led me to you and it is that calling for which I am eternally grateful.  Thank you for calling me into your presence, out of my sin, and to a divine reconciliation with you.  There is no merit in me that attributes this act of grace.  It is merely that; Grace.

Thank you, Abba.  Thank you.

I love and worship you.