When it comes to knowing what our purpose is, we have two options. 1) Guesswork. If we only rely on our own knowledge and feelings to find our purpose, we’re likely to get it wrong somewhere. We’d probably end up choosing the purpose we think we’d like, rather than the purpose that’s actually right for us. We can’t see the whole picture, so we need: 2) Revelation. In the Bible, we read: ‘To be a high priest is an honour, but no one chooses himself for the work. He must be called by God as Aaron was.’ We can apply a similar thought to our own calling – it’s not our choice, but God’s. And we can actually draw comfort from this, because it means that when God has called us to do a certain thing, we can be confident that He’ll provide the resources, wisdom, connections and strategy we need to fulfil it. We can also find guidance in His Word. In the Bible, we can discover insights into why we exist, how life works, how best to live our lives, what to avoid, and what to expect in the future. There are a lot of self-help books out there, and while many of them contain good advice, none of them are God’s personal message to His children. The Message paraphrases Paul’s words: ‘God’s wisdom…goes deep into the interior of his purposes…It’s not the latest message, but more like the oldest – what God determined as the way to bring out his best in us’ (1 Corinthians 2:7 MSG). Each one of us has been created to fulfil a certain unique purpose in life. And to discover it, we need to turn to God and His Word, not the world’s wisdom.

What Now?

If you’re not sure what your calling is, ask God for confirmation and guidance. If He’s already revealed your calling to you, ask Him for wisdom about the next step you need to take for it.