What Happens When You Step Into Your Highest Calling
“The very word ‘calling’ is fraught, isn’t it? It feels like a word saved only for special people and those paid to do ministry.”
That’s a line from my Encouragement for Today devotion, “Your Highest Calling Isn’t What You Think.”
It’s true, isn’t it? So many of us struggle with the idea of calling, but ultimately I believe that it’s not as hard as we make it. In fact, we often miss our highest calling by over-complicating it.
(Spoiler alert! If you’re not sure what your highest calling is, read the devotion before you proceed.)
Our highest calling is simple. We’re called to be near Jesus.
How do we accomplish coming near Jesus? Just like with anybody you want to build relationship with– a grandchild, a friend, your husband– you get closer to Jesus by spending time with Him. Read the Bible. Pray. Sit in silence and listen to His words for you. Bask in His presence and peace. These are just a few ways to prioritize time with Jesus.
In this fast-paced world, it’s not easy to carve out time to come close, but it’s essential. There just aren’t any short-cuts.
In those moments, I know that God will meet You. I can say it with full confidence, because He’s met me. As I said in the devotion, He’ll draw you close and then He’ll send you out. If you’ve been wrestling and wrestling with what to do, pause to simply come close, and leave a comment to let me know what happens. I’m praying that God floods into your time with Him!
What happens when we step into our highest calling of coming near Jesus? He meets us there, giving us patience in a wait or sending us out to do His work. Either is beautiful!
Giveaway (a tool for your highest calling):
Cheri Gregory, co-author of Exhale, and I are excited to announce our Group Study materials available through Amazon! Before we wrote one word of Exhale, we dreamed and designed it to be a book that groups would love digesting together. Our six-week group study is designed to take the life-changing lessons from the book to an even deeper level, creating change that sticks through group discussion and support.
Combining Scripture, thought-provoking questions, and time to inhale the lessons of Exhale, the group study will empower you and your friends to walk through a process that releases you from the things that have created unbearable pressure.
The materials include: a Group Study guide for participants, a Leader Guide, and free teaching videos from Cheri and me (available August 15th at ExhaleBook.com/study).
I’m super-excited about today’s giveaway because I know it can lead to the life you know you’re made for as you develop a community around Exhale with all the tools you need!
TEN copies of Exhale
Group Study (for a participant)
Here’s how you enter:
- Prayerfully decide to lead an Exhale group in your home, workplace, or church.
- Go to ExhaleBook.com/study
- Scroll to the bottom of the page, and enter your email address. This will enter you for this giveaway, and you’ll receive our updates, training, and support for leaders starting in the fall.
Note: If you’ve never led a small group before, but you feel God knocking at your heart, dive in and do it! Cheri and I will walk alongside you and other leaders in a private Facebook group to help support you.
Thanks for writing Exhale! I loved it and may have just volunteered to lead it at my church this fall. I even found my next book that I am working through, Come With Me, while reading Exhale. I’m loving that, too. Looking forward to seeing your book touch more lives in our small group!
Yay! Cheri and I are thrilled that you’ll be leading a group through Exhale. If you entered your email address at ExhaleBook.com/study, we’ll be sending out info soon about some fun and support for leaders. 🙂
No matter how, how much, or what I pray, I have never heard God’s voice. Not in my ears, not in my heart. I have read book after book about how to pray and what other people’s prayer lives and relationships with Him are like and I can’t help but to feel a tad jealous, why not me too? Clearly, I am doing something wrong. I haven’t given up, I continue to seek, to read, to pray, I just worry one day I may give up. And what if this is a lesson I am supposed to learn? I will have failed. I don’t want to give up. But how long can I listen to the silence, talk with no response, be in a relationship and yet feel so alone?
Suzy, I have a dear, godly friend who has told me the same thing. Because she’s such a godly woman, I know that there’s nothing she’s doing wrong. My guess is that it’s the same with you. My friend often feels the same as you, and we’ve talked through this extensively. I’m not sure exactly why the two of you are experiencing this, but here are some things I KNOW based on Scripture:
1. You’re DEEPLY loved by God. You are His beloved daughter. He wouldn’t leave you out or deprive you in any way because of His love for you.
2. He does speak to you the same way He faithfully speaks to me through the Bible. His completely dependable Words are there for us to access every moment. Anything that I’ve heard from Him in any other way must be subject to the Bible, so in the end, that’s the way He always speaks to me.
I hope this helps and encourages you. You are loved here too!
So excited about this!!!
Thanks for your encouragement, Kimberly!
Amy,
This book and study opportunity as come at just the right time. I am actually going on a five day silent retreat in another week to spend time with God seeking what He would have me to do, my calling. I am excited to see what God has for me. So I will drop you a note when I have some answers. Thanks!
So honored that Exhale will be a resource for you and anxious to hear how God speaks to you!
[email protected]
I’ve started reading “Exhale”, and am enjoying it! Taking my time, as you suggested! Blessings!
Thanks so much, Dori! I’d love to hear what you think as you process.
Wow! Talk about divine timing. I landed here on your blog today after reading your phenomenal devotional on the P31 site.
I have been in prayer for several months about starting a small group study with women this fall for our church. I wasn’t sure what book/study to use and even have wrestled with whether it was the right time for me to start a small group. This study not only aligns with the things I am already called to minister to women regarding, but would likely be something that the women and our church would love to have available! I signed up for the email updates! This may be my answer!! Thank you Amy!
Oh, wow! That makes me so happy, Kaci. I hope we’ll get to walk together through Exhale. <3
Being a minister’s wife has been a blessing to me, but sometimes ( most of the time), I feel like I’m not serving the Lord and my Christian family as actively as I want to. This leads me to guilt, frustration and honestly, resentment. I have been praying for God to give me a ministry that I can be fully engaged in. I am going to have the faith to step out and start a Bible study with a few of my sisters and see what God has planned for us.
Thank you for your encouragement this morning. You are a true blessing to me.
I’m excited that the devotion and post inspired you today! Thanks so much for sharing.
I needed this today, thank you Amy❤️
Hope to see you in a couple weeks at SS!
Yay! I’ll be on the lookout!
I love this devotion Amy! I have always connected calling to going out and doing. This year my word is “Grow”. I am digging into God’s word, using my “3 Question Bible Study” daily as I read, study, memorize, and pray scripture. I feel like I am doing what God is calling me to do today. I feel a sense of peace and contentment as I learn and grow in His word and wait patiently for my next directions.
Your comment makes me incredibly happy, Jane Ann. I’m picturing you with your Bible study and cheering wildly!