Meditation – Pursuing the Call of Theology
by Isaac Overton
What is the most important thing that you can do with your life? I wonder if you’ve pondered that question before. I wonder what sort of answers we might expect to hear if we asked the average person? We might hear things like: “Live a good life”, or: “Enjoy life.” We might here more altruistic answers like: “Help others”, or “Make a contribution to the world.” Some might have a strong sense of calling in the work they do, and consider that work to be the most important. Some might consider their families to be the highest priority, and they dedicate themselves to their families. What about you?
In Jeremiah 9:23-24 God himself actually gives us his opinion on the matter (and it’s the only opinion that truly matters!). “Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” According to this divine oracle, the only possible thing that we can do that could be worthy of any boast is to understand and know God. And yet how few people devote themselves to this calling? How many even among Christians, I wonder, have made serious commitment and taken action unto growing in their understanding and knowledge of God? We might make general lament in reflecting upon this question, but here is the real point: what will you do?
To the world around us, the idea of pursuing growth in our understanding of and relationship with God is utter foolishness. In 1 Cor 2:14 we read: “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” How about you? If you had one hour free every day to do nothing but pursue the knowledge and understanding of God, how would you feel about that? Excited and ecstatic? Or apprehensive and disinterested? Your answer to that question reveals much about your true character.
The year 2023 is about to come to an end. I’d like to suggest to you that, as we embark upon 2024, that you purpose in your heart to seriously pursue this calling. Seek to understand God, and to know him. Let me suggest a few resources to begin to help you to open up your Bibles and seek the Lord. J.I. Packer’s “Knowing God” would be a wonderful place to start. Be prepared to pause and open up every scripture reference, ask the Lord himself to reveal himself to you, and this will be a good place to begin. A.W. Pink’s “The Nature of God” is another excellent resource. Each chapter is only a few pages long, and so it would be an excellent devotional resource to read one chapter per day. Steve Lawson’s “Show me your glory” is another volume that you should diligently study. If those were the only three books outside of the Bible that you prayerfully read in 2024, you will be significantly better off at the end of the year than you were at the beginning. Perhaps you are retired? Make this your retirement project. There are many good books beside these to help you go deeper into the scriptures, but these three would be a great place to begin. For those how have already read them, Joel Beeke's "Reformed Systematic Theology - Vol 1" would be an excellent next step(and has a large bibliography to direct further reading!). To seek the truth about God and growing in our understanding, to receive that truth, and to grow in devotion to God in understanding, affection, and will – there is no higher calling. Are you ready to become a theologian?
SDG.