Estimated reading time: 9-10 minutes

Few questions can make a sincere Christian feel more uncertain than this one.

What does God want me to do with my life?

We may imagine that somewhere there is one particular job, ministry, calling, place, or assignment that God has chosen for us—and our responsibility is to somehow discover it. Until we do, we can feel as though we’re waiting for our real purpose to begin.

Perhaps we’re starting the question in the wrong place.

Before asking what particular thing God wants you to do, it helps to begin with several things He has already made clear.

You Don’t Have a Christian Life and Another Life

We commonly divide life into categories. There is Christian music and secular music. Ministry work and secular work. Church activities and ordinary activities.

Some of those distinctions can be useful. Preaching a sermon is different from repairing a roof. Gathering with believers for worship is different from going to work Monday morning.

But neither activity takes place outside our relationship with God.

“And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus…”
—Colossians 3:17, KJV

Paul makes the point even more broadly in 1 Corinthians 10:31: whether we eat, drink, or do anything else, we are to do it to God’s glory.

Eating and drinking are about as ordinary as life gets.

A carpenter doesn’t have to become a preacher before his work matters to God. A mother doesn’t need a ministry title. A businessman isn’t living a secular life Monday through Friday and becoming a Christian again on Sunday. Retirement from a career doesn’t mean retirement from usefulness to God.

The Christian does not have a Christian life and another life. We have one life, and all of it belongs to God.

That is an important place to begin. Otherwise, we may spend years looking for God’s purpose somewhere other than where He has already placed us.

Start With What God Has Already Said

There is another problem with asking, What does God want me to do?

God has already told us quite a lot.

Jesus taught us to love God and our neighbor, forgive, pray, give, tell the truth, care for others, seek God’s kingdom, and treat people as we would want to be treated. Scripture teaches us to be faithful, honest, compassionate, responsible, generous, and obedient.

Those instructions aren’t waiting for us to discover our individual calling. They already belong to us.

Some of God’s will for my life may be particular to me. Much of God’s will for my life has already been written down.

You may not know what God wants you doing five years from now. You can still live faithfully today.

Keep your word. Do your work honestly. Care for your family. Forgive someone. Help somebody who needs you. Control your tongue. Pray. Learn Scripture. Take care of the responsibilities already in your hands.

None of that sounds particularly dramatic.

Perhaps one of our mistakes is assuming God’s will must be dramatic before it is important.

Look at What God Has Already Put in Your Hands

Then another question becomes useful:

What has God equipped me to do?

Ask yourself some ordinary questions.

What can I actually do? What have I learned through work and experience? What do people repeatedly ask me to help them with? Where have I been useful? What responsibilities seem naturally to find their way into my hands? What can I do that genuinely benefits someone else?

Not every useful gift requires a microphone.

One person teaches. Another organizes. Someone listens extraordinarily well. Someone can repair almost anything. Another notices people everybody else overlooks. Someone handles money responsibly. Someone cooks. Someone encourages. Someone knows how to sit quietly beside a grieving person.

We shouldn’t become so interested in identifying a formal “spiritual gift” that we overlook abilities God has already allowed us to develop.

If a widow has a leaking roof and you know how to repair it, she probably isn’t terribly concerned about how you classify the gift.

She needs somebody who can fix the roof.

What Would You Really Like to Do?

There is another question Christians sometimes seem reluctant to ask:

What do you really want to do?

If you could ask God for an opportunity to do something worthwhile with your life, what would you ask Him for?

What would you love to do?

Desire by itself doesn’t determine God’s will. We can want things for the wrong reasons. And sometimes we finally get an opportunity we’ve wanted for years and discover we don’t enjoy it nearly as much as we imagined.

But desire shouldn’t automatically be treated with suspicion either.

Perhaps there is a kind of person you continually want to help. A problem you cannot stop thinking about. Something you have always wanted to build, teach, create, repair, organize, learn, or give away.

Perhaps you continually look at a need and think:

Somebody ought to do something about that.

Maybe that somebody is you.

Bring the desire into prayer. Examine your motives. Compare it with Scripture. Look honestly at your abilities. Ask whether there is a genuine need.

And when appropriate, give yourself permission to try.

Pay Attention to What Is Already Around You

We can become so concerned about God’s future assignment that we overlook our present responsibilities.

You may already have a spouse, children, aging parents, employment, financial obligations, neighbors, a church, commitments, and people who depend upon you.

Those things matter.

Sometimes the answer to What should I be doing? begins with a much simpler question:

What needs doing right now?

Then look for places where several things begin to meet:

Ability. Desire. Need. Opportunity. Responsibility.

That isn’t a formula for discovering God’s will. But when several of those repeatedly point in the same direction, they are worth paying attention to.

You don’t have to know where the road ends before taking the next faithful step.

Pray—Then Be Willing to Move

Certainly we should pray about important decisions. Ask God for wisdom. Ask Him to correct you. Search Scripture. Seek wise counsel when you need it.

But prayer should not become an excuse for permanent indecision.

Sometimes “I’m still praying about it” really means “I’m afraid to make a decision.”

There comes a point when we may know enough to act.

An open door isn’t automatic proof that God wants us to walk through it. A difficult road isn’t automatic proof that God wants us to turn around. Ease doesn’t always mean approval, and difficulty doesn’t always mean prohibition.

Pray. Think. Examine your responsibilities. Listen. Then, when you have enough light to take a reasonable step, take it.

Let Other People Help You See Yourself

There is something remarkable about the way God made us that we seldom consider.

You have never actually seen your own face.

You have seen photographs of it. You’ve looked at its reflection in a mirror. But your eyes cannot turn around and directly see your own face.

Other people can.

And the principle extends far beyond our faces.

Other people see things about us that can be difficult to recognize from the inside. They notice what we do naturally, what excites us, where people repeatedly seek our help, how we respond under pressure, and abilities we may take for granted because they have always seemed ordinary to us.

That’s one reason Christian community matters.

Someone may tell you, “You have a way of explaining things that people understand.”

Someone else may say, “You notice people everybody else misses.”

And sometimes a trusted person needs to tell us, “I know you really want to do this, but I’m not sure this is where you’re strongest.”

We need both.

Other people don’t get to decide God’s will for us. But they have a vantage point we don’t have.

Sometimes another person can see something in you that you cannot see simply because you are standing on the inside looking out.

Give Yourself Permission to Try Something

You don’t necessarily need to know that something is your lifetime calling before you’re allowed to try it.

If it is morally sound, consistent with Scripture, doesn’t irresponsibly abandon existing obligations, and there is a reasonable opportunity—try something.

Teach the class. Volunteer. Write something. Help with the project. Learn the skill. Visit somebody. Build something. Take the course. Help the neighbor.

Perhaps you’ll discover:

I’m good at this. I love doing it. People benefit from it.

That’s useful information.

Perhaps you’ll discover:

I never want to do that again.

That’s useful information too.

Trying something and discovering it isn’t your assignment isn’t necessarily failure.

It may be discernment.

Expect the Assignment to Change

There may be one overarching calling—to belong to Christ and live faithfully before Him—but there can be many assignments within that life.

Marriage changes things. Children change things. Health changes things. Age changes things. Loss changes things. Retirement changes things. Opportunities change. Experience changes what we are capable of giving.

The assignment that fits your life at twenty-five may not be the assignment that fits your life at fifty-five.

So perhaps the better question sometimes isn’t:

What does God want me to do with my life?

It may be:

What does faithfulness look like in this season of my life?

What If I Choose Wrong?

You probably will sometimes.

So will the rest of us.

Christian maturity doesn’t produce infallible decision-making.

Sometimes you will try something and discover you misunderstood yourself. You thought you’d be good at it and weren’t. You thought you’d love it and didn’t. You thought an opportunity would lead somewhere and it didn’t.

That doesn’t necessarily mean the experience was wasted.

Sometimes discovering what you aren’t supposed to do is part of discovering what you are supposed to do.

There are decisions Scripture answers clearly. If something requires disobedience to God, you don’t need further discernment.

But many decisions aren’t like that.

Sometimes there are two honorable jobs. Two reasonable places to live. Several worthwhile ways to serve. There may not be one hidden correct answer surrounded by wrong ones.

Pray. Gather the information you can. Seek counsel when appropriate. Examine your responsibilities and motives. Make the best decision you know how to make.

Then walk.

If you discover you’re going the wrong direction, turn.

Take the Next Faithful Step

Maybe you don’t need God to show you the next thirty years.

Perhaps you already know enough to live faithfully today.

Do what He has clearly told you to do. Take care of what He has already placed in your hands. Pay attention to the abilities He has given you, the desires that continue to surface, the needs you can see, and the opportunities in front of you.

Pray. Listen. Learn. Try something worthwhile.

Then take the next faithful step.

When it is time for another one, God will still be there.

Still Have a Question?

Questions about purpose and direction are often shaped by the particular circumstances of our lives. If you are trying to work through a decision or wondering what faithfulness might look like in your present season, you are welcome to send your question to M5 Accord. We may not have a simple answer, but we will try to help you think through it carefully and biblically.