Standing Firm in Your Faith and Calling

Recently I’ve been reading through the book of Isaiah, and boy did God hit me with something to share.

Isaiah lived in Jerusalem and begins to speak to the leaders in warning from God about the outbreak of sin that was occurring throughout the land. It is revealed that God is going to “remove from Jerusalem and from Judah every kind of security” (Isaiah 3:1) in reaction to the people’s rebellion against Him. He says, “The pride of mankind will be brought low, and human loftiness will be humbled; the Lord alone will be exalted on that day” (Isaiah 2:11). Isaiah is explaining this and tells the leaders that after this destruction of the rebellious lands there will be a new Jerusalem, of which the people are turned towards God.

Isaiah recounts a vision of God on His rightful throne being worshipped, this shows him how wrong he and his people are. He is told to go and spread the word of what is coming in the future. So Isaiah goes to Ahaz, the ruler of the time, to tell him that God’s warning will go into action. He states, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, then you will not stand at all” (Isaiah 7:9).

Let that sink in because you probably know and have experienced hard times in standing tall in your faith. I know for certain that I have. God lets us know that there will be adversity in this life, but it is not meant to tear us down; it is meant to build us up. We are to stand firm in our faith in Him.

I plan on majoring in Discipleship studies with a minor in Biblical studies, and I am super psyched about it. I'm in my second semester of senior year and everyone always asks “what are you going to study?” and by everyone, I mean absolutely everyone. In my case, this question reveals not only my future career goal being in ministry, but also my "Jesus freak label." Don’t get me wrong, I’m totally all in and dedicated to ministry, but sometimes people just don’t expect it and start acting different. Starting off announcing this to people took some getting used to, but now I expect it.  

God has unique callings for all of us and in order for us to carry these out, He has blessed us with certain gifts. I know sometimes it’s hard to accept this calling He has placed on you, because it is scary, but He is always walking with us.  

As I was writing this I was listening to Cory Asbury’s newest album and the song “Water and Dust” came on. In it he says, “Don’t lose heart, He’s got your hand.” And I just thought “wow,” because He calls us to express these gifts we have been given and it can be daunting, but He is with us, He is always with us. You have to be diligent in your contemplation of your calling to assure you’re following His calling, not just what you desire your calling to be.

You cannot allow your own preferences on comfort to cloud your realization of what He is calling you to do. 2 Peter 1:10 says, “make every effort to confirm your calling and election, because if you do these things you will never stumble.”  This is not to say there will not be trials, but there will be no stumbles in identifying your calling if you really concentrate on His will.

Identifying what He is calling you to can be very difficult. The thing is He will reveal it to you when He knows you are ready. For me this has been illustrated through God revealing the world of ministry to me at the age of 5. I was so amazed at a young age of all the amazing things that were being done to spread God’s name.Then as time went on I discovered my own passion for mission work and ministry in general.

When I was trying to decide on what career I wanted to pursue, many people were telling me to just find something that would make a lot of money. But as I kept hearing stories about ministry, it reminded me of how much I love ministry. It brought back that pursuit of a future I was introduced to when I was only 5. Just the timing of how He revealed this calling is absolutely incredible, and I can’t wait to see what He does.

He works through people in all areas of work. He may be calling you to be a teacher, fireman, waitress, or nurse. He may call you to move to another state or to serve in a certain ministry at church. The most important thing is to listen intently to see what His calling for you is and be diligent in following it.