Discover Your Calling (Through Prayer)

How To Discover Your Calling Through God’s Will

To have a calling means that you need to have a caller. Without anyone calling you to something how can you have a calling? 

For Christians, it is God who is calling us to something. But what exactly is he calling us to do? In this article, we will figure out exactly what God is calling you to and how to discover your calling through prayer. 

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Two Types of Callings

Before we go any further, it is important to point out that there are two different types of callings for Christians. The first is our Primary Calling. The second is our Individual Calling. 

What is a Primary Calling? 

A primary calling is what every Christian has been called to by God. It can be found throughout the Bible and is used as a consistent theme. 

Our primary calling is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, love your neighbor as yourself,” (Luke 10:27). 

This primary calling does not change between different people. Every Christian has been called to love God, and to love our neighbor. This has been made clear over and over throughout the Bible and we cannot deny this calling. 

What is an Individual Calling? 

Now that we know what our primary calling is, we need to figure out our individual calling. It will be different for every person. Through our individual calling, we are able to live out our primary calling. 

Our calling can be, but isn’t always, our career path. Basically, our individual calling is our specific way to love and serve others and bring glory to God. 

Discover Your Calling Through Prayer

If you are still trying to discover your calling, here are some tips on how you can be praying for God to reveal it to you. Even if you feel like you understand your calling, you can pray over these things in order to get a better grasp of how you are to fulfill that calling. 

To discover your individual calling, take some time thinking and praying over these questions.

Our calling will answer these three questions: 

Who? Who are we supposed to serve?

How? How are we supposed to serve them? 

Why? Why are we serving them in this way? 

Who Are We Supposed to Serve?

Figuring out the who of our individual calling is very important. What demographic will you serve? Here is a list of different demographics that can help you define who you may be called to serve. This list is to get you started. 

• Age range
• Gender
• Life stage (college, newlywed, retirement, etc)
• Occupation 
• Race
• Geographic location
• Familial status (single moms, expecting, empty nesters) 
• Income status
• Personal struggles (addiction, imprisonment, debt) 

Some ways to help figure out your ‘who’ is to look at your own experiences. 

Who have you been or who are you today? Have you dealt with your own personal struggles and are you able to help those going through the same struggles? Do you resonate with a certain life stage that you are currently in the middle of? Maybe you feel strongly for those in a lower income class or for people living in your own neighborhood. 

Pray, and ask God, “Who do you want me to serve and to love?”

How Are You Supposed to Serve Them?

After figuring out who you are serving, you need to understand how to serve them. 

This can be figured out by asking yourself some questions about the specific demographic. 

• What are their struggles? 
• What are their passions?
• What are their pain points? 
• What motivates them? 
• What experiences can I share with them?
• What are their goals? 

These are some questions to get you thinking about their needs. Maybe your demographic is college graduates. Their biggest struggles, needs, and goals might be around finding a job, paying off student debt, or figuring out life outside of their college campus.

The ‘how’ will also help explain exactly what you need to do to serve your ‘who.’ Take for instance college graduates: find a way to help them secure jobs through a recruitment company where you can train them to find high paying jobs to quickly pay off their student loans quickly. 

Pray, and ask God, “How am I supposed to serve those you have put in front of me?”

Why Are We Serving Them In This Way? 

Your ‘why’ for doing something will stem mainly from our primary calling – to love God and love our neighbors. But your ‘why’ will also go deeper than that and is typically tied to something personal. 

Continuing with the college graduates example: maybe you struggled a lot after graduating college and you now want to help graduates so they don’t struggle as much as you did. 

Or maybe it was your own child who was the recent college graduate and they had to move back home after college because they had a hard time finding a job and paying off their student debt. 

Figuring out your ‘why’ is important. Your ‘why’ is what will keep you going when you experience rough moments in your attempts to serve others. 

Pray, and ask God, “What is my ‘why’ for serving people in this way?”

A Prayer For Discovering Your Calling

To put it all together, here is an example prayer that you can pray to ask God to reveal your individual calling. 

Heavenly Father, I know that I have been put on earth for a greater purpose. You have called me to love you first and foremost, and you have also called me to love and serve my neighbors. As your hands and feet, help me to fulfill my primary calling will all of my being

God, I ask that you reveal my individual calling to me. Show me who I need to serve, how I need to serve them, and why you need me to serve them in this way. Lord, break my heart for the things that break yours. Show me the needs of those around me. Help me to lean into the gifts and talents you have given me so that I may do my best work for your Kingdom. Holy Spirit, rise up in me so that I may have the courage, the strength, and the right words to say to love and serve my neighbors. 

I ask all of this in your most precious name. 

Amen

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