How to find your purpose in life

1546 · John Calvin, Commentary on 1 Corinthians, part 1 (chapters 1-14) 7.20

Every man in the calling in which. This is the source from which other things are derived, — that every one should be contented with his calling, and pursue it, instead of seeking to betake himself to anything else. A calling in Scripture means a lawful mode of life, for it has a relation to God as calling us, — lest any one should abuse this statement to justify modes of life that are evidently wicked or vicious. But here it is asked, whether Paul means to establish any obligation, for it might seem as though the words conveyed this idea, that every one is bound to his calling, so that he must not abandon it. Now it were a very hard thing if a tailor were not at liberty to learn another trade, or if a merchant were not at liberty to betake himself to farming. I answer, that this is not what the Apostle intends, for he has it simply in view to correct that inconsiderate eagerness, which prompts some to change their condition without any proper reason, whether they do it from superstition, or from any other motive. Farther, he calls every one to this rule also — that they bear in mind what is suitable to their calling. He does not, therefore, impose upon any one the necessity of continuing in the kind of life which he has once taken up, but rather condemns that restlessness, which prevents an individual from remaining in his condition with a peaceable mind and he exhorts, that every one stick by his trade, as the old proverb goes.

1548 · John Calvin, Commentary on Philippians 2.21

Whithersoever Christ calls you, you must go promptly, leaving off all other things. Your calling ought to be regarded by you in such a way, that you shall turn away all your powers of perception from everything that would impede you. It might be in your power to live elsewhere in greater opulence, but God has bound you to the Church, which affords you but a very moderate sustenance: you might elsewhere have more honor, but God has assigned you a situation, in which you live in a humble style: you might have elsewhere a more salubrious sky, or a more delightful region, but it is here that your station is appointed.

1559 · John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 3.10.6

Hence, he only who directs his life to this end will have it properly framed; because free from the impulse of rashness, he will not attempt more than his calling justifies, knowing that it is unlawful to overleap the prescribed bounds. He who is obscure will not decline to cultivate a private life, that he may not desert the post at which God has placed him. Again, in all our cares, toils, annoyances, and other burdens, it will be no small alleviation to know that all these are under the superintendence of God. The magistrate will more willingly perform his office, and the father of a family confine himself to his proper sphere. Every one in his particular mode of life will, without repining, suffer its inconveniences, cares, uneasiness, and anxiety, persuaded that God has laid on the burden. This, too, will afford admirable consolation, that in following your proper calling, no work will be so mean and sordid as not to have a splendour and value in the eye of God.

1566 · Martin Luther, Table Talk 17

No man should undertake anything, except he be called thereunto. Calling is two-fold; either divine, which is done by the highest power, which is of faith; or else it is calling of love, which is done by one’s equal, as when one is desired by one’s friend to preach a sermon. Both vocations are necessary to secure the conscience.

1675–1680 · Stephen Charnock, Discourses upon the Existence and Attributes of God 13

By the same exercise of his authority, that he “sets every man the bounds of his habitation” (Acts xvii. 26), he prescribes also to him the nature of his work. He that ordered Adam, the father of mankind, his work, and the place of it, the “dressing the garden” (Gen. ii. 15), doth not let any of his posterity be their own choosers, without an influence of his sovereign direction on them. Though our callings are our work, yet they are by God’s order, wherein we are to be faithful to our great Master and Ruler.

1820 · John Tillotson, Works, Volume 5 100

In serving the occasions and necessities of life with sobriety and temperance, and in managing our worldly commerce with justice and integrity, we may serve God, and perform considerable duties of religion. So that provided we do nothing that is sinful, and manage the actions and concernments of this life with a due regard and subserviency to the great interests of eternity, we may do the work of God all the while we are providing for ourselves, and employed in the works of an honest calling: for God, who hath designed this life in order to the other, considers the necessities of our present state, and allows us to make provision for it. There are some persons, indeed, whose birth and condition sets them above the common employments of life, and the works of an ordinary calling: but these also have a work given them to do: for God hath sent no man into the world to no purpose, and only to take his pastime therein; neque enim ita generati sumus a natura, ut ad ludum et jocum facti esse videamur; sed ad severitatem potius, et quaedam studia graviora atque majora: “For we are not (says Tully de offic. lib. 1.) so framed by nature, as if we were made for sport and jest, but for more serious employments, and for greater and weightier business;” and those who are tied to no particular calling, may allow so much larger portions of their time to religion, and the service of God: and God likewise expects from them, that they should be useful to mankind in some higher and nobler way, according to the publicness of their station and influence. Such persons may be serviceable to their country, and the affairs of government, and in the care of public justice, and may employ their time in preparing and rendering themselves more fit for this service. They may find a great deal of work to do in the good government of their families, and in the prudent care and management of their estates, and in reconciling differences among their neighbours, and in considering the necessities of the poor, and providing for their supply.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 3

And God, who has ordained both society and order, accounts himself so much served by each man’s diligent pursuit, though of the meanest trade, that his stepping out of the bounds of it to some other work (as he presumes) more excellent, is but a bold and thankless presumption, by which the man puts himself out of the common way and guard of Providence. For God requires no man to be praying or reading when the exigence of his profession calls him to his hammer or his needle; nor commands any one from his shop to go hear a sermon in the church, much less to preach one in the pulpit. God, as the lord and great master of the family of the universe, is still calling upon all his servants to work and labour; a thing so much disdained by the gallant and the epicure, is yet that general standing price that God and nature has set upon every enjoyment on this side heaven; and he that invades the possession of any thing, but upon this claim, is an intruder and an usurper.

1823 · Robert South, Sermons Preached Upon Several Occasions, Volume 5 3

We have seen then how every man sustains a double capacity; according to which he has also a double work or calling. 1. A temporal one, by which he is to fill up some place in the commonwealth by the exercise of some useful profession, whether as a divine, lawyer, or physician; a merchant, soldier, mariner, or any inferior handicraft; by all which, as by so many greater and less wheels, the business of the vast body of the public is carried on, its necessities served, and its state upheld.

1884 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 30 (1884) 1777

Then I beg you to consider, once more, with what singular personal adaptations you are endowed for the work to which God has called you. I believe you are endowed with special capacity for a certain work, so that no one is so fit for it as yourself—you are a key to a lock which no other key will fit so well. God has prepared you for the work for which you are appointed.

1893 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 39 (1893) 2331

I think it exceedingly wrong when I hear exhortations made to young people, "Quit your service as domestics and come out into spiritual work. Business men, leave your shops. Workmen, give up your trades. You cannot serve Christ in that calling, come away from it altogether." I beg to say that nothing will be more pestilent than such advice as that! There are men called by the Grace of God to separate themselves from every earthly occupation and they have special gifts for the work of the ministry, but to ever imagine that the bulk of Christian people cannot serve God in their daily calling is to think altogether contrary to the mind of the Spirit of God! If you are a servant, remain a servant! If you are a waiter, go on with your waiting! If you are a tradesman, go on with your trade! Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called, unless there is in him some special call from God to devote himself to the ministry.

1907 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 53 (1907) 3057

Every man has his own particular calling and every Christian's calling should be especially for God. One is called to the foreign mission field—let him go, in God's name, to the regions beyond—let him not stay at home. Another is called to go from house to house to visit the sick, to care for the poor and so on—Bible-woman, City Missionary, I greet you in Christ's name and bid you keep to your own work and never run away from it! One is called to teach an infant class and another to care for the lads or the lasses—and all are fitted for the work to which they are called by God. And to each one the Master says, "Follow Me and keep to the work which My Father has given you to do, even as I pleased not Myself by selecting My own work, but did that which My Father had appointed for Me."

1909 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 55 (1909) 3135

Do not many Christians fail to see their commission? It has come to be a dreadfully common belief in the Christian Church that the only man who has a "call" is the man who devotes all his time to what is called "the ministry," whereas all Christian service is ministry and every Christian has a call to some kind of ministry or another! It is not every man who will become "a father in Israel," for "you have not many fathers." It is not every man who can become even an instructor, or an exhorter, but each man must minister according to the gift he has received.

1650 · Jeremy Taylor, The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living 1.2.2

Begin every action in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; the meaning of which is, 1, that we be careful that we do not the action without the permission or warrant of God; 2, that we design it to the glory of God, if not in the direct action, yet at least in its consequence; if not in the particular, yet at least in the whole order of things and accidents; 3, that it may be so blessed that what you intend for innocent and holy purposes, may not, by any chance, or abuse, or misunderstanding of men, be turned into evil, or made the occasion of sin. 3. Let every action of concernment be begun with prayer, that God would not only bless the action, but sanctify your purpose; and make an oblation of the action to God: holy and well intended actions being the best oblations and presents we can make to God; and, when God is entitled to them, he will the rather keep the fire upon the altar bright and shining. 4. In the prosecution of the action, renew and re-enkindle your purpose by short ejaculations to these purposes: ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name, let all praise be given;’ and consider: “Now I am working the work of God; I am his servant, I am in a happy employment, I am doing my master’s business, I am not at my own dispose, I am using his talents, and all the gain must be his:” for then be sure, as the glory is his, so the reward shall be thine.

1660 · Thomas Watson, The Beatitudes 15

1 To be diffusively good is the great end of our creation. ‘Created in Christ Jesus unto good works’ (Ephesians 2:10). Every creature answers the end of its creation. The star shines, the bird sings, the plant bears; the end of life is service. He that does not answer his end in respect of usefulness, cannot enjoy his end in respect of happiness.

1706–1708 · Matthew Henry, Commentary on Genesis 2.8-15

Note, here, (1.) We were none of us sent into the world to be idle. He that made us these souls and bodies has given us something to work with; and he that gave us this earth for our habitation has made us something to work on. If a high extraction, or a great estate, or a large dominion, or perfect innocency, or a genius for pure contemplation, or a small family, could have given a man a writ of ease, Adam would not have been set to work; but he that gave us being has given us business, to serve him and our generation, and to work out our salvation: if we do not mind our business, we are unworthy of our being and maintenance.

1729 · William Law, A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life 4

A tradesman may justly think that it is agreeable to the will of God, for him to sell such things as are innocent and useful in life, such as help both himself, and others, to a reasonable support, and enable them to assist those that want to be assisted. But if, instead of this, he trades only with regard to himself, without any other rule than that of his own temper; if it be his chief end in it to grow rich, that he may live in figure and indulgence, and to be able to retire from business to idleness and luxury; his trade, as to him, loses all its innocency, and is so far from being an acceptable service to God that it is only a more plausible course of covetousness, self-love, and ambition. For such a one turns the necessities of employment into pride and covetousness, just as the sot and epicure turn the necessities of eating and drinking into gluttony and drunkenness. Now he that is up early and late, that sweats and labours for these ends, that he may be some time or other rich, and live in pleasure and indulgence, lives no more to the glory of God, than he that plays and games for the same ends.

1745 · Philip Doddridge, The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul 28.5

And here, “having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us,” (Rom. 12:6) let us hold the balance with an impartial hand, that so we may determine what it is that God requires of us; which is nothing less than doing the most we can invent, contrive, and effect, for the general good. But, oh! how seldom is this estimate faithfully made! And how much does the world around us, and how much do our own souls suffer for want of that fidelity!

1861 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 7 (1861) 399

Let each of you, whatever his calling may be, seek to find some special way in which that calling may conduce to the glory of Christ. You are a little star in the Pleiades, do not wish to be the pole-star, if you were taken out of the Pleiades, the constellation would not be what it now is. Keep where you are, but shed your special rays upon the earth; and if you be but a little star, do not the little stars together shed much light, and earth were dark if they all were quenched?

1862 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 8 (1862) 441

You need not go out of your everyday callings to be priests, but be priests in your callings. Sanctify the Lord God in your workshops, in your fields, in your marketplaces, in your exchanges. And whatever you do, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, who has made you priests and kings unto Him.

1862 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 8 (1862) 434

If any man shall say "I have an occupation in which I cannot serve the Lord," leave it, you have no right in it. But I think there is no calling in which man can be found, certainly no lawful calling, in which he may not be able to say, "Whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do, I do all to the glory of God." The Christian is no more a common man than was the altar a common place. It is as great a sacrilege for the Believer to live unto himself, or to live unto the world, as you and I could have profaned the most holy place, used the holy fire for our own kitchen, or the censer for common perfume, or the candlestick for our own chamber.

1869 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 15 (1869) 870

If you begin to say, "I cannot glorify God where I am, and as I am," I answer, neither could you anywhere if not where you are! Providence, which arranged your surroundings, appointed them so that, all things being considered, you are in the position in which you can best display the wisdom and the Grace of God. Now, if you can once accept this as being a fact, it will make a man of you. My Christian Brother, or my dear Sister, it will enable you to serve God with a force which you have not yet obtained, for then, instead of panting for spheres to which you will never reach, you will enquire for immediate duty, asking, "What does my hand find to do?" You need not use your feet to traverse half a nation to find work—it lies close at hand. Your calling is near at home—your vocation lies at the door, and within it. What your hands find to do, do at once and with all your might and you will find such earnest service the best method in which you can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 24

To glorify him, therefore with our bodies, as well as with our spirits; to go through outward work with hearts lifted up to him; to make our daily employment a sacrifice to God; to buy and sell, to eat and drink, to his glory; — this is worshipping God in spirit and in truth, as much as the praying to him in a wilderness.

1892 · James Denney, The Expositor's Bible: The Epistles to the Thessalonians The First Epistle to the Thessalonians, X. Charity and Independence

No Christian ought to be ambitious of anything but to fill as unobtrusively as possible the place in life which God has given him. The less notorious we are, the better for us. The necessities of our situation, necessities imposed by God, require most of us to spend so many hours a day in making our daily bread. The bulk of most men's strength, by an ordinance of God that we cannot interfere with, is given to that humble but inevitable task. If we cannot be holy at our work, it is not worth taking any trouble to be holy at other times. If we cannot be Christians and please God in those common activities which must always absorb so much of our time and strength, the balance of life is not worth thinking about.

1905–1910 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: 1 Timothy 2.8

The old saying that is often quoted with admiration, 'work is worship,' is only half true. There is a great deal of work that is anything but worship. But it is true that if, in all that I do, I try to realise my dependence on God for power; to look to Him for direction, and to trust to Him for issue, then, whether I eat, or drink, or pray, or study, or buy and sell, or marry or am given in marriage, all will be worship of God. 'I will that men pray everywhere.' What a noble ideal, and not an impossible or absurd one!

1906–1907 · Alexander Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture: Mark 4.36-38

The only thing worth giving that name to is the ‘mission’ which He gives us, who sends us into the world not to do our own will, but to do the will of Him that sent us. There is a fatal monotony in all our lives—a terrible amount of hard drudgery in them all. We have to set ourselves morning after morning to tasks that look to be utterly insignificant and disproportionate to the power that we bring to bear upon them, so that men are like elephants picking up pins with their trunks; and yet we may make all our commonplace drudgery great, and wondrous, and fair, and full of help and profit to our souls, if, over it all—our shops, our desks, our ledgers, our studies, our kitchens, and our nurseries—we write, ‘My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me.’ We may bring the greatest principles to bear upon the smallest duties.

1693 · Thomas Manton, Works, vol. XX Sermons on Several Texts of Scripture, Sermons upon Philippians iii. 7-21, Sermon XI. Phil. iii. 14

No one part of our lives will agree with another if they be not firmly fixed by the power of our last end, which runneth through all the parts, and so puts a harmony into them. Our actions are as a mere lottery; the various fancies men are governed by are jumbled together by chance; and so we either walk at random, or having different ends, are ‘double-minded and unstable in all our ways,’ James i. 8. The last end fixeth the mind, which otherwise would be tossed up and down in a perpetual uncertainty, and distracted by a multiplicity of ends and objects.

1845–1861 · Charles G. Finney, Sermons on Gospel Themes 19

God does not call men in any miraculous way. The finger of His providence points out the path, and the fitness He gives you indicates the work for you to do. You need not fear that God will call you wrong. He will point out the work He would have you do. Therefore, ask Him to guide you to the right spot in the great field.

1858 · Horace Bushnell, Sermons for the New Life 1

You are on the point of choosing, it may be, this or that calling, wanting to know where duty lies and what the course God himself would have you take. Beginning at a point most remote, and where the generality of truth is widest, Consider (1,) the character of God, and you will draw a large deduction from that; for, all that God designs for you will be in harmony with his character. He is a being infinitely good, just, true. Therefore, you are to know that he can not really seek any thing contrary to this in you. You may make yourselves contrary, in every attribute of character, to God; but he never made you to become any thing different from, or unworthy of, himself. A good being could not make another to be a bad being, as the proper issue and desired end of his existence; least of all could one infinitely good. A great many employments or callings are, by these first principles, forever cut off. No thought is permitted you, even for a moment, of any work or calling that does not represent the industry, justice, truth, beneficence, mercy of God.

1858 · Horace Bushnell, Sermons for the New Life 1

God’s law and his written Word are guides to present duty, which, if faithfully accepted, will help to set you in accordance with the mind of God and the plan he has laid for you. “I am a stranger in the earth,” said one, “hide not thy commandments from me;” knowing that God’s commandments would give him a clue to the true meaning and business of his life. (5.) Be an observer of Providence; for God is showing you ever, by the way in which he leads you, whither he means to lead. Study your trials, your talents, the world’s wants, and stand ready to serve God now, in whatever he brings to your hand.

1858 · Horace Bushnell, Sermons for the New Life 1

Choke that devilish envy which gnaws at your heart, because you are not in the same lot with others; bring down your soul, or, rather, bring it up to receive God’s will and do his work, in your lot, in your sphere, under your cloud of obscurity, against your temptations; and then you shall find that your condition is never opposed to your good, but really consistent with it. Hence it was that an apostle required his converts to abide each one in that calling wherein he was called; to fill his place till he opens a way, by filling it, to some other; the bondman to fill his house of bondage with love and duty, the laborer to labor, the woman to be a woman, the men to show themselves men,—all to acknowledge God’s hand in their lot, and seek to cooperate with that good design which he most assuredly cherishes for them. Another frequent mistake to be carefully avoided is that, while you surrender and renounce all thought of making up a plan, or choosing out a plan, for yourself, as one that you set by your own will, you also give up the hope or expectation that God will set you in any scheme of life, where the whole course of it will be known, or set down beforehand. If you go to him to be guided, he will guide you; but he will not comfort your distrust, or half trust of him, by showing you the chart of all his purposes concerning you. He will only show you into a way where, if you go cheerfully and trustfully forward, he will show you on still further.

1867 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 13 (1867) 756

The fact is that we are not to pick and choose the path of Christian service which we are to walk in, but we are to do the work of Him that sent us. And our object should be, as there is so much work to be done, to find out what part of the work the Master would have us do. Our prayer should be, "Show me what You would have me do"—have me do in particular—not what is generally right, but what is particularly right for me to do.

1872 · John Wesley, Sermons on Several Occasions 37

Suppose, for instance, it were proposed to a reasonable man to marry, or to enter into a new business: in order to know whether this is the will of God, being assured, “It is the will of God concerning me, that I should be as holy and do as much good as I can,” he has only to enquire, “In which of these states can I be most holy, and do the most good?” And this is to be determined, partly by reason, and partly by experience. Experience tells him what advantages he has in his present state, either for being or doing good; and reason is to show, what he certainly or probably will have in the state proposed. By comparing these, he is to judge which of the two may most conduce to his being and doing good; and as far as he knows this, so far he is certain what is the will of God. 25. Meantime, the assistance of His Spirit is supposed, during the whole process of the inquiry. Indeed it is not easy to say, in how many ways that assistance is conveyed. He may bring many circumstances to our remembrance; may place others in a stronger and clearer light; may insensibly open our mind to receive conviction, and fix that conviction upon our heart. And to a concurrence of many circumstances of this kind, in favour of what is acceptable in His sight, He may superadd such an unutterable peace of mind, and so uncommon a measure of His love, as will leave us no possibility of doubting, that this, even this, is His will concerning us.

1885 · Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Spurgeon's Sermons, Volume 31 (1885) 1838

When he had thus said, "Here am I!" the Lord gave him his orders in detail. I do not say that the Lord will give us orders verbally as he did to Ananias. And I would have you take heed that you do not mistake whims of your own mind for the voice of God, but I do say that whatever your hands find to do, you are to do it with all your might and believe that God's voice is calling you to that service which His Providence places in your way. God still guides His servants when they are willing to be guided.

1910 · R. A. Torrey, The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit 18

God usually speaks in a still small voice and it is only the listening ear that can catch it. Have you ever definitely offered yourself to God to send you where He will? While no man or woman ought to go to China or Africa or other foreign field unless they are clearly and definitely called, they ought each to offer themselves to God for this work and be ready for the call and be listening sharply that they may hear the call if it comes. Let it be borne distinctly in mind that a man needs no more definite call to Africa than to Boston, or New York, or London, or any other desirable field at home.