BY GREG CRUM

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” Isaiah 6:8

I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but the importance of its revelation bears repetition— God has a calling for your life. There is a plan for each of our lives in fact, one in which we are beneficial to the Lord and the building of His Kingdom and that fulfills our own spirit’s pursuit of purpose in life. That plan includes many tasks, missions, and, no doubt, many stages as we walk through our journey down here on Earth. It’s our life’s work, our individual purpose for being born into this plane of existence.

For this reason, it should come as no surprise to the believer that one of the most important understandings we can come to in this life is knowing our calling. Wise servants of the Lord have always sought His will for their lives and, like the prophet Isaiah before them, have been willing to respond to the Lord with, “Here am I; send me.”

With that said, over the years I’ve seen so many people struggle with knowing God’s calling on their lives, to the point that they default into inactivity in the Kingdom. They don’t know what they are supposed to do specifically, so they do nothing. This is not a healthy solution to their problem. In fact, it’s equal to hiding their “talent” in the ground, and if you remember Jesus’ teachings along these lines, in the end this inactivity will be most regrettable.

Here’s the thing, friends: Figuring out God’s calling on our lives shouldn’t be hard; we’ve just made it hard!

Brothers and sisters, we’ve made difficult what should be one of the most natural of discoveries in life—finding out what God wants us to do with ourselves while we are down here. Think about it. God surely wants you to know what to do. That’s one of the main reasons for your existence, and if you really want to know as well, that constitutes all necessary parties involved, and it should be a “no-brainer,” right?

So why the struggle?

Well, I’ve noticed that many make it much harder than it should be to discover their calling in life because they want to know all the details upfront. They want to know the first from the last and try to get the “big picture” before putting all the puzzle pieces together one by one, and that couldn’t be further from the walk of faith that our individual callings dictate. What they should do is quit looking at the macro (the big picture) and start looking at the micro (the every day)! They should quit trying to get an overview of the whole forest before they begin their journey and start looking at the trees right in front of them!

Counterintuitive to conventional wisdom when choosing a lifelong vocation and/or our service to the Lord? Sure, but God’s calling is often best discovered by reviewing the everyday tasks and missions He’s asking us to do and following those clues to their logical conclusion.

Case in point, a few months ago I was speaking with someone who came to the revelation that when God put someone on their mind that they hadn’t thought of for a while, that was an indication from the Lord that He wanted them to pray for them. They did and afterward found out that the family in question had suffered some recent loss.

What was going on here?

This person saw a need and proceeded to heed that “call” to fill that need in the moment. This person didn’t wait for an overt message from God that they were called as an intercessor in this life. They just saw a need and accomplished the task at hand. Friends, the call of God on our lives is often discovered in moments like this when we see a need and heed that “call.” Have you seen any needs lately? This may just be God asking you to fulfill your call!

Greg Crum is pastor of Calvary Temple Church in Lovely.