How Do I Know What God is Calling Me To?

Proverbs 2:1-10, Philippians 1:9-11, Ephesians 4:11-16

Week of January 21, 2018

Connect

As you gather with your groups take the opportunity to catch up with each other and especially to get to know any new members of your group this time.  As you sense the time is right,

ASK: Pastor Kevin talked about 5 signs that you need to find a vocation on Sunday (for your reference below)—how did any of those 5 signs really resonate with you?

1. You can’t think of anything you could talk for an hour about that matters for the world (fave tv show or sports team doesn’t count).

2. You can’t think of anything you would write a large check to today without getting anything in return.

3. You can’t think of the last time you felt alive while volunteering or serving.

4. You do not feel stretched, challenged, or afraid in your job or volunteering.

5. You feel empty, unfulfilled, or like you’re missing something.

Pray

I really encourage each group to try the “pray for the person on your left” after each person shares their answers to the measures questions.  We used this in my Tuesday morning Bible study this week, and it was amazing to hear people pray who I haven’t ever heard pray for almost 3 years.  Encourage your group that they can do it and that prayer is simply talking to God!

However your group decided to reflect on the measures (whether by looking at all of them, or selecting one each week), take time to share and then pray together.  Here’s the measures so you have them in one spot:

Passionate: Where did I see God today?

Accepting: How am I building diverse relationships?

Invitational: Who am I connecting with God’s family?

Trusting: Where does God rank?

Active: How am I engaged with God’s work?

Reflect

You might want to ask your group to share if they have any thoughts or reflections to share from Sunday’s sermon before you dive in.

Parker Palmer wrote this about vocation:

“Today I understand vocation quite differently—not as a goal to be achieved but as a gift to be received.  Discovering vocation does not mean scrambling toward some prize just beyond my reach but accepting the treasure of true self I already possess.  Vocation does not come from a voice ‘out there’ calling me to become something I am not.  It comes from a voice ‘in here’ calling me to be the person I was born to be, to fulfill the original selfhood given me at birth by God” (10).

Ask: How does the understanding that vocation comes “from within” instead of “from outside” change the way that you understand calling?

Look together at Philippians 1:9-11. 

Ask: What does this passage say to you about discernment?

Part of the issue with discerning what God might be calling us to can be the idea that “I can do whatever I set my mind to.”  Parker Palmer also discusses this issue:

            “Like many middle-class Americans, especially those who are white and male, I was raised in a subculture that insisted I could do anything I wanted to do, be anything I wanted to be, if I were willing to make the effort.  The message was that both the universe and I were without limits, given enough energy and commitment on my part.  God made things that way, and all I had to do was to get with the program.

            My troubles began, of course, when I started to slam into my limitations, especially in the form of failure” (39).

Ask: How can failures and limitations be a part of discerning God’s call in your life?

Parker Palmer writes:

“Vocation at its deepest level is, ‘This is something I can’t not do, for reasons I’m unable to explain to anyone else and don’t fully understand myself but that are nonetheless compelling” (25).

Ask: How did Susan Cole’s story affect you?