On this episode:

This episode discusses how to have confidence that you are doing what God has called you to do.

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Opening

On this episode, we’re talking about God’s divine calling on your life.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Well, we all want to have confidence that we are doing the work that God wants us to be doing. That we we are working on and doing the activities and what God wants us to be working on. And I want to talk a little bit about that today and just out of the gate, ultimately that’s between you and the Lord. That’s something for you to work out.

But I want to talk about a few things that can help you grow in your confidence that you are doing what God has called you to do. Now, what comes to mind when you hear that? The idea of a calling, maybe a pastor or a missionary? Are those the only types of callings there are? Well, when we look at the Bible, we see there is many other kinds of callings.

What is a Calling?

So let’s first just what’s the definition of a calling?

Well, it’s God’s summoning of a person to Himself so that they will belong to Him and serve Him in this world. That’s pretty simple. Well, we all can serve God.

This calling of a believer can involve a specific place, a task, or a specific vocation in life. Now, 1 Corinthians 7:17 says, “only let each person lead the life that the Lord has assigned to him and to which God has called him.”

Did you hear that? Each person. The Lord has assigned. God has called. That’s everybody. That includes you. And what does that mean? It means it’s a divine call. So you have a divine call on your life.

Types of Callings

Now we are all called as primary calling is to relationship with Jesus Christ. And when we’re indwelled with the Holy Spirit, we have these secondary callings. Could be, like I said, an activity, task or a place that we need to go that God has appointed for us to pursue.

We have extreme ones like Noah building the Ark or Moses leading the Israelites, or Esther being called to be a queen and risk her life to save her people.

But we also have more simple ones like in 2 Kings 5 where the young Israel girl gives advice that leads to the healing of Naaman’s leprosy. Or 1 Kings 17 the widow of Zarephath that cooked a simple meal for the prophet Elijah, and it ended up leading to a miracle that saved her and her family.

Occupation as a Calling

Well, we all can have a vocation. It’s a primary occupation. So, something you’re doing now, you have been called to do that now. It may not be your only calling. It may not be where you’re going to stay.

You know, Joseph had many different callings in his life. He was a household steward. He ran a prison while he was in the prison, and then he became second over the land of Egypt in governing the land.

Well, God called him to these things and he served God right where he was, and he did his best work and he worked and partnered together with God.

Your Calling Today

So have you thought about what you’re involved in today as a calling? Well, God has certainly summoned you to work together with Him and to be in service to Him in this world and we can do that every day.

But we want to make sure we’re seeing ourselves as being called by God and then we can take it seriously and we know that our work and whatever we’re doing is not about us. It’s about God and what He wants to accomplish. And He certainly wants to be together with us in that.

So if we can stay close to the Lord in fellowship and follow His direction, we can have confidence that we are doing what He wants us to be doing.

God Has Called You

So whether you love what you’re doing or you’re on your way to something that you love doing, take some time this week to think about how God has called you, how God has summoned you to serve Him wherever you are.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

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Opening

On this episode:

This episode talks about how nothing in our work is arbitrary and that God uses everything for our good.

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Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about how nothing in your work is arbitrary.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Could it really be true that nothing in your work is arbitrary.? I mean, what about all the surprises that happen? All the difficulties that come up? All the disappointments? What about all of those things?

Everything Has Meaning

Well, if they’re not arbitrary, that means that there’s purpose in them and that means that it’s not a waste. And that means that there’s meaning there.

God knows everything. He knows the future. He knows your past, He knows everything you’ve been through. He knows everything that’s coming up in your future that you need, need to be prepared for. So, but we can trust Him. And if we know Christ, we know we have a promise in Romans 8:28, that God will use all things for the good of those who love Him. And that’s true in church on Sunday, that’s true in your Bible study, that’s true in your family. And that’s true in your work.

God’s Promises Are Always True

Now, like I said, it can be hard to believe, but when we really think about it, those promises are true no matter what’s going on. And we need to learn to walk by faith. What that means is to trust God. So that means those things that come up, we may not be able to see what God’s gonna do with them, but we can have confidence and trust that He will use them for our good.

Now what can God do with some of the things that come to our work? Well, He can develop us. He can prepare us for the future; things that are coming up. He can help get something going in our spirit, bring our attention to something. Or it could just be that we needed to learn how to trust Him more.

And He wants us to be able to do that. It’s great when we can see how God will use something and wants to use something, but we don’t always have the ability to see that and to know exactly what God might have planned or what good He’s going to bring out of a situation. So we learn to walk by faith.

Joseph’s Circumstances

You know, in Genesis 50:20, it’s Joseph talking to his brothers. His brothers sold him into slavery and then he ended up going to prison later after he was wrongly accused. And he had a chance later in life when he was actually second in command over the known world in the Egyptian world. His brothers were standing in front of him and he actually said, what they meant for evil against him, God meant for good.

That means that God was not surprised by what happened, what the enemy means for evil God can use for good.

All for God’s Glory

How incredible is that? That even the things that the enemy might want to set up and that God will use that even to bring Him glory. When we see that our work is not about us and it’s about God, it’s much easier to understand how all of this stuff can be for our good. It’s not just the good of His kingdom, which it is. It’s also for our individual good.

Testimony Builds Faith

So when we have these promises and so many amazing stories in the Bible, this history that’s recorded in the Bible. We can go and we can build our faith by reading those testimonies. We can see that God really does deserve our trust. No matter what happens, whether it’s a job we didn’t get or our relationship difficulty, God can use it for our good.

So we need to be able to reflect internally. We need to be able to go to the Lord and say, “all right, Lord, what’s this mean for you and me? What do You want coming out of this?” He may show us, He may not, but we need to walk by faith. And trusting Him, no matter what. We can’t just walk around like we’re victims of our circumstances as if God doesn’t know what’s going on with us, because that’s just not true.

Time to Reflect

So take some time to reflect. I’m sure you can think of some things that God has used in an unexpected way. Walk in confidence that God will use everything and your work for your good. Everything has purpose and meaning, and nothing is arbitrary. So it takes some time to think about that this week.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode discusses the importance of taking time to think and highlights 2 Tim. 2:7.

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Opening

On today’s episode, we’re going to talk about the importance of taking time to think and how God can use that in your life.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

Many people get nervous as soon as they hear the idea of sitting alone with their thoughts and just thinking and being in silence. But I want to encourage you that it is worth your time to learn how to do that.

Paul’s Encouragement to Think

Whether you’re sitting alone with your thoughts in silence or whether you’re doing it with worship music on, however you’re doing it, taking time to think is important and I really want to draw your attention to what Paul said in 2 Timothy 2:7. He says, “think over what I say for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.”

Well, this is highlighting the fact that we need to actually take time and think about what God has written down in His word. Now this has definitely been my experience where I just sit there and mull over something, a truth of God’s word, maybe a promise that I’ve heard from Him, or something about my life.

And all the sudden I just get it. Something shows up in my mind and my spirit and I just get it. And God just downloads it or clicks things together. He connects it to other scriptures, He connected to other things going on in life. He may bring something else to mind.

It’s all this inner working of God just speaking to us through our thinking. And we need to learn to do that. And if you’re, if you’re scared of the silence, do it with worship music on or do it with something that doesn’t distract you, but can let your mind flow freely.

And we wanna keep it flowing toward the things you know, like in Colossians 2:3, it says, set your minds on things above. And think about Philippians 4:8, about whatever’s honorable, whatever’s just what is pure, lovely, commendable, those sorts of things. Think about those things.

You Already Do This

Now I believe that if you consider this, you will realize that you already know how to do this and you’re already very good at it. In fact, our thoughts kindle and flame our affections. When you think about things that you want to think about, if you have an activity that you really enjoy and you like to think about that. Or if you just met someone that you like thinking about and it brings you more affection for them as you think about them or as you think about that activity that you want to do, it grows your excitement and your affection toward that.

So this principle is just as important and no different when it comes to the things of the Lord and His Word and our affections for Him. So if we want to grow in our affections and understanding of something, we need to think about it.

Paul is talking to Timothy in that verse and saying to think about what He’s saying. God will give understanding  when we really take time and dig into and mull over, meditate on that truth of that Word. Whatever it is that is in front of you at that time. And I promise this will guarantee you fruit. Actually, God promises this in His Word and it’s not only a intellectual download that God gives us, it’s an understanding in our spirit that we just get it and he may give us an articulation for that or it may just be something that we used to wonder about and now it’s just a settled issue. It’s not a concern anymore.

That’s how we grow in trust with Him. And like I said, that’s how we get understanding, like Paul says in 2 Timothy 2:7.

Your Turn to Think Intentionally

So take some time this week. Make sure you’re spending that time carved out with God and taking time to think over what God is saying to you in His Word.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.

On this episode:

This episode gives three important reasons to partner with God in your daily work.

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Episode Transcript

Opening

On today’s episode, three incredible reasons that you should partner with God in your daily work.

You’re listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, a podcast to inspire and equip you to partner with God in your daily work. Visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to learn more and download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You.

Episode

One of the biggest components of Your Faith At Work is the idea of partnering with God. I want you to know that there are some very good reasons that we should do that and I want to give three of them today.

1. The Biblical Model

Now, the first is simply that it’s the biblical model. The Bible has a lot to say about work and God uses the work of His people and we have examples all throughout the scripture of God working together with His people. It’s a common thread from the beginning of the Bible in the Old Testament to the end of the Bible in the new Testament.

God gave Noah the plans to build the Ark. God gave Joseph answers to how to prepare for famine. Luke was a medical doctor who traveled with Paul. All kinds of examples in there from the Old Testament to the New.

2. Apostle Pauls’ Instructions

The second is that Paul explicitly says to work with God. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 3:9, he says that we are God’s fellow workers. And he says earlier in verse six and seven that we plant and we water. But God gives the growth. See, we’re working together now he’s talking about sharing the Gospel, about spreading God’s message, expanding His kingdom and influence, and also all of the work that we do.

The New Testament also talks about how God prepared good works for us to walk in and to bring Him glory.

3. God’s Infinite Wisdom and Knowledge

Now the third reason is that God has infinite wisdom and infinite knowledge. You know, James 4:2 says that we do not have, because we do not ask or we ask with wrong motivation. God is the originator of all wisdom, all knowledge.

And when we’re looking to come together to resolve issues or to know how to handle something or what to do next, what to focus on, what our priorities should be, God has that answer. Now, His word is filled with these kinds of answers and wisdom that we can apply to our lives and to our work. But it’s also His Holy Spirit that is in us, that is guiding us and directing us and giving us specific application for the things that we find in His Word.

Your Challenge

So partnership, partnering with God, relationship is essential to that. Now, what are you doing this week to enhance your relationship with Christ? So I want to say that, hey, involve God in your work and invite Him in. He wants to partner with you. He has not left you alone. Invite him in.

So think about that this week. What is going on in your work that you can come together and partner with God in because that’s exactly what He created you to do.

Closing

Thanks for listening to Your Faith At Work with Dr. Ryan S. Howard, if you enjoyed this podcast, we’d love for you to subscribe, share, and leave us a review. Be sure to visit your YourFaithAtWork.org to download your free copy of 21 Days to a New Workplace You. And remember, God wants to partner with you in your work every day.