De-Mystifying God’s Calling
By: Abbi White
Tags: Christian Women, Youngadult, Christianity, Christian Living

As a young Christian, I drove myself crazy trying to figure out God’s calling on my life.

Through my involvement in different churches and ministries over the years, I heard many people say God was calling them to full-time ministry or to work for this or that organization or to go be a missionary in this or that country. I loved hearing these stories and wanted to make my life count… but I wondered why I didn’t have the same clarity about my profession. I wondered why God didn’t intervene as dramatically into my story and tell me exactly what to do.

I asked mentors, Bible study leaders, friends, and family for guidance on how to determine my calling, and most of them said things like,

“Take this personality test.” “Ask God for a sign.” “Do what you’re passionate about.”

All these pieces of advice can be useful when trying to figure out what sort of job to take, but they’re a swing and a miss when it comes to figuring out God’s calling on your life.

To be clear, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with making a living doing something you love, praying for God to drop a clarifying opportunity into your lap, or seeing what your Myers-Briggs test results say about your industry-specific potential. And I’m certainly not suggesting that our professional lives don’t matter.

But I do want to draw an important distinction that I wish had grasped years ago: God’s calling on your life is much bigger than you, your passions, your personality, and your self-actualization.

Is your profession a major part of your life? Oh, yeah.

Will your education and job opportunities directly affect the way you spend your time and use your God-given talents? For sure.

Does God care about your profession? Most definitely.

But if you think God’s calling on your life is merely to be a lawyer, an accountant, a teacher, or a stay-at-home parent, you’re missing it by a thousand miles.

When I was a college kid and a new college grad, agonizing about how to spend my life and what sort of career to pursue, deeply afraid of missing out on God’s calling for me, what I needed more than anything was for someone to say:

“Read your Bible, girl.”

If I had turned to Scripture before turning to strengths tests, I would have realized that I was falsely conflating my professional trajectory with God’s calling on my life.

I was so worried about getting a clear, definitive, writing-on-the-wall answer from God as to which profession I should choose and where I should live that I was entirely missing the very clear, specific calling He had already given me in Scripture.

Called to Believe Christ

I was like the crowds that followed Jesus in John 6, asking Him again and again to perform more miracles and give them more food, to whom he said, “Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.”

The people asked, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?”

Jesus answered, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” (v. 27–29)

This is the big, unmistakable, non-negotiable call of God on all of our lives: to believe Jesus.

If we don’t get this, we have no business asking for direction in any other area of our lives. If our starting point for evaluating our trajectory in life isn’t taking Jesus at His word, believing that He is who He says He is, and getting right with our Maker, we will remain lost and never find our way. And if we haven’t set our eternal trajectory on Heaven, all of our toil, work, and time here on Earth will be utterly and tragically wasted, no matter what we do for a living or how we spend our time.

But believing Christ, on the other hand, changes everything.

Called to Make Disciples

When we forsake everything and follow Jesus, we are finally free to live as we were meant to live. We can finally get up off our faces and stop worshiping the American-made idols of achievement, wealth, and status. We can stop blindly pursuing our own greatness and happiness and throw ourselves headfirst into His work, which is this:

“Go… and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19–20

If we believe Jesus, we understand that humanity’s greatest need isn’t more money, better government programs, cleaner water, or good jobs, and the most urgent, pressing issue facing people today is the same as it always has been. We need a Savior.

God puts it in the hearts of some to be pastors, teachers, and missionaries, and make Gospel ministry their full-time gig. This is a wonderful thing. However, most of us won’t go into full-time ministry — but God can use you to make disciples no matter what you do for a living.

Called to Be Faithful

Here’s what I’m getting at: Your profession is neither ultimate nor unimportant.

It’s not the central part of what God has called you to do and be, but it gives you an opportunity to share the truth about Jesus with lost and dying people, which means it is deeply, deeply significant. And your work ethic, thoughtful investment of your talents, and impact in your industry can give you a platform to make Christ known within your circle of influence, whether you’re a computer programmer, a nanny, or an Uber driver.

Ephesians 2:10 says this:

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

Be encouraged by this!

God has created us for good works and prepared Christ-glorifying opportunities for us beforehand. If we believe Scripture, we can rest in knowing that God is involved in everything from our major life decisions down the minutiae of our daily routines. So as we seek to invest our time and talents well, we can resist the temptation to worry and embrace the truth that God can and will direct our professional lives for His glory.

When you make esteeming Christ your primary purpose in every job you take, every opportunity you have, and everything you do, you cannot possibly miss God’s calling on your life and you cannot possibly fail.