Tag: Finding your calling

What do I do when one assignment comes to an end?

A couple of months ago I wrote about embracing your call and understanding that an assignment from God, be it staying at home to raise your children or working on a job that is not quite your definition of a ‘dream job’, is the call that he has for you. Wherever God has placed you is where he wants you to be and that is your calling.

But where do we go and what do we do when an assignment ends?

It can be really disconcerting when your routine is interrupted by a change in affairs. It could be that you have been made redundant at work or you have recently graduated and are looking to get into work. Or perhaps your children are grown and have moved out. No matter what your stage in life is, change can be uncomfortable and requires you to adjust your position. If you have been focused on a particular assignment for a long time it can be a lot more shocking and strange to suddenly be doing something else.

God moves us from one assignment to the next in order to keep us from becoming stale. Sometimes it is because we have outgrown our previous position. Embedded in every assignment are learning curves and challenges that are designed to stretch us. We don’t always feel the stretching. We don’t always feel growth pains, but it doesn’t always mean that we are not growing.
There are a host of reasons why God would want to move us to the next assignment. Whatever the reason, just know that it is to bless and increase you and not to subtract from you.

The commandment of God to humanity at the very beginning was for us to “be fruitful and multiply”, to “subdue the earth” and to “have dominion”. That commandment is still true today. It is not the purpose of God for our lives to be stuck in one spot. He desires that we spread and become masters over things. With this in mind we can start to understand what we should be doing when one assignment ends.

1. Give Thanks
Your attitude should be one of thanks giving. 1 Thessalonians 5:16, tells us to “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Just over a week ago I was laid off a job that I had received a few months prior by what I could have only explain to be the intervention and grace of God. I which things had been different, but In my hearts of hearts I am thankful to God for the opportunity to learn, grow and be a blessing. I rejoice because I know where my source really is.
I don’t see it as a cut in my financial supply I see it as a step to doing something new, because God is my provider. Don’t be down cast.

2. Get Closer
The second part of that scripture says, ” pray without ceasing”. We should be praying to God all day, all the time. We can do this by praying in our hearts and rehearsing scriptures as we go through our day. (I will talk more on this in a separate post.) For now though I think that we can all agree that our lives get so busy with work and routine that we don’t put so much emphasis on praying as we should be. When our routines are interrupted we look for new things we can do to keep us busy again. This is the perfect time to get back in touch with God. You have all this free time now to pray more and study the word more. Go on hour long prayer walks or worship walks. Spend time with God. In the process, you will get clearer understanding of his purpose for your life and insight into your next assignment.

It’s so powerful how God created a part of the earth each day in Genesis 1 and then paused after each day to look at what he had done and then said that it was good. God modelled the nature of putting our work and aims under review before moving on to the next thing. It’s the principle of watching and praying. If you don’t keep your eyes and mind open you will miss the instructions God has for you. I have find that God has spoken to me more about what he wants me to do and the direction to take when I was preparing myself by putting myself through training, reflecting and listening.

I hope you find your feet landing on the path God has set before you. And may you find grace and peace in every season you find yourself in.

3. Prepare
‘Prayer is the master Key! One key for every door.’ This is the truth that we have been feed since first coming to the faith. What we fail to do alongside praying is prepare for what we have prayed for. Have you taken time out to recubirate, rest and skill up for the next assignment. Between each assignment there is a moment, an opportunity for you to clean and sharpen your tools. This moment can be used to reflect on the past. What would you change or do better? Sometimes God puts us on intentional pauses because we haven’t taken out time to give ourselves a break.

Embracing the Call

Humility, Servant-hood and Becoming

Let’s not use our calling as an opportunity to be proud or to carry ourselves with greater importance than we should. When we think about our calling and our assignment we should do so with humility remembering that God called out to us because we were far away. He called us because without his calling we wouldn’t know that we had to step into his plan and purpose. God’s calling was to realign us to our destiny and our perfect place in him, which is first to save our relationship with him and in so doing our salvation. 

A married man might call his wife frequently when they are not together to check on her with the intention to boost their relationship and in doing so is saving their marriage. It would be foolish for the wife to go around boasting that her husband gave her a call. Whilst she is understandably touched and excited when her husband calls, it is totally unnecessary for her to announce his call. 
I think in a similar manner we should cherish and accept the call of God with all humility.

Secondly, a call to fulfil an assignment is a privilege, because if we really look at ourselves we are not worthy. It is God that calls us and makes us worthy, not by our own righteousness or well doing but by his grace. We don’t earn it or work for it, it is just given to us because God is good.

Let us never fall into the trap of thinking that the goodness we experience has anything to do with the fact that we are so good. In fact, I’ll say that we are not always good. We are too selfish to be completely always good. We are still learning to be more like God, which is part of the reason why he gives us assignments.

Assignments are designed to:
Break you, rebuild you, prune you, stretch you, mould you, shape you better you and touch lives through you.

Can you see that the bulk of the work is on you and not through you? That’s because we are not perfect vessels. Why might a parent allow their five year old child to be with them in the kitchen? Surely, they can work faster, more effectively without the distraction of the child.
It is because being in the kitchen, teaches the child how to behave in the kitchen environment encourages them to help out, instils an attitude of care and partnership, develops their interest, teaches them how to cook, keeps them busy, builds a bond between them and the parents and enables the parent to keep an eye on them.
All these things can be likened to how God calls us into his work.

49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Luke 2:49

Jesus knew exactly why he was called and he spent his early years, sitting in the temple, “listening” and “asking questions” (verse 46). It’s not enough to know that you are called and what it is you are called to do but why God has called you. It is a deeper understanding of the why that will keep your head bowed in humility when you reach the hills and will strengthen your arms for the enduring embrace of your call in God.


I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Ephesians 4:1-3

A Higher Calling

I’ve been thinking about my calling lately. 

Actually, it has been at the back of my mind since 2015. I’ve always thought that a ‘calling’ is that one thing I was meant to do because I was either talented or particularly gifted in a certain way. I constantly looked for the talents and strengths I had to anchor me to a particular field or purpose. 
I watch out for my interests and dislikes and personality traits to find what God wanted me to do. 

But in recent times I’ve found that I’m not always completely sure about the path I’m taking. Sometimes it’s because it’s too restrictive and it feels like I can and should be doing more. Other times, I just do not feel the fulfilment in what I am doing and wonder whether I missed it somewhere. I worry that my indicators are off. And at other times I think that how I feel is an example of my unsteadiness and inconsistency a flaw in my character that keeps me form working harder and pushing myself to fulfilling my call. 

However, as I have continued to think and pray about it I find that the problem is not my attitude and a possible personal or emotional lack of consistency, it is in my understanding of what it means to be called. 

A calling is not a one time discovery of an assignment. A calling, in truth, is not about you. Instead it is an awareness of the person who is calling you. 

Moses, when he was called by God at the burning bush, was completely shocked and afraid of the responsibility of having to get people out of the land of Egypt. The massive weight of that responsibility coupled with the fear of having to return to a country in which he was a criminal fugitive to face and challenge Pharaoh’s authority, was to big of a challenge for him. 

God knew this. He knew about all Moses’s limitations and weaknesses. He knew that he was not a talented speaker. He knew that he had murder on his criminal record and he knew that he had not lived amongst the people of Israel. 

We often get excited in sermons when we hear about how God used this same Moses who by every standard should have been a good for nothing, was used to accomplish something so mighty. God made something marvellous out of nothing and he is still doing the same today. 

We often forget that our little becomes a lot in the hands of the maker, not because he is seeking to perform wonders but because he is seeking relationships. Let me explain that a little more. 

Moses was not chosen because he was a sorry case and God wanted to show how merciful he is. Or because he had been through so much. Moses and everyone else who has a calling is called for the purpose of relationship. 

Moses was called to join the covenant relationship of his forefathers and his people. He was called because where he was with the Midianites was too far from where he wanted him. He was not spending time in the mountains praying and having face to face conversations with God about the future and destiny of the Children of Israel. This came much later after he had found his calling which was to worship God by being in relationship with him. 

God’s number one aim is to draw us closer. Whatever that does not draw us closer to him is not part of our calling. Our calling is about the one who is calling us (God) and not about the assignment he is calling us for. We can be called to do anything, but the reason behind why we are called is God’s priority. The joy of being called is getting to know God. 

“Many are called but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)
That’s because we are all called to a face to face relationship with God through Jesus Christ. But few get chosen to perform wonders because we focus more on the assignment rather than on God.
We can’t part seas without God, we can’t fight Pharaoh’s army without him at our sides. We can only encounter discouragement in our assignment when we focus on the assignment instead of getting the assignment done with him. God gives us these assignment to draw us closer to himself and to bring us back to the place of our purpose.  

Like Moses God’s call to us is to draw us out of obscurity and isolation into love and friendship with him. So, as long as I daily answer the calling, I will find my hands doing exactly what it is I am meant to be doing. Yes, my gifting are indicative but the greatest gift is to be both found and lost in the love of God.