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Transcript 587A
How Can I Know What My Life's Work Is?
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Hi. My question is, how do you know about your life's work? What guidelines can you follow that will let you know that you're doing what you're supposed to be doing, that the course that you're following is the true course that God meant for you? I was in an entirely different business, and something happened. And it just seems like a series of incidents happened, and they just lead me to an entirely different field. And I'd like to know what kind of guidelines I can seek in the Bible that will tell me whether I'm on the right track or not. Can Satan have a definite influence in getting you onto something else? Or will God stop that?
HC: The question is, how can I know what my life's work is? I'm a Christian and I want to do it God's way.
First of all, God does not lay down specific guidelines for me, telling me that I have to be a bricklayer or a housewife or a mason, or whatever. But He does lay down general rules that I can examine vocations with, to see if this is my life's work.
For example, the Bible indicates that whatever I do, may it be done to the glory of God. Whether I eat or drink, or whatever I do, do it to the glory of God. The Bible says, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." The Bible tells me that if I don't work, then I shouldn't eat. The Bible declares that if I don't take care of my own, that is, my own household, then I am worse than an unbeliever. And so on and so on. God lays down general rules by which we can evaluate any particular job.
Now if you're a wife, then your first responsibility is to take care of the home and to make sure that that is a first responsibility in your life. If you are not a wife, then of course it leaves the door a little wider open to other occupations. But whatever your occupation is, you want to make sure that it meets these general rules that God lays down.
Now beyond that, God gives us a fairly wide field. Obviously, you don't want to get into an occupation that would make you live in sin in any way, or commit sin. Obviously you would want to do something that would give you opportunity to witness if at all possible, because we have a task to be a representative of the Lord. Whatever occupation we get into, we should look upon that as our mission field, so that we can use it as an opportunity to, in gentle ways, tell others about Christ. We obviously will seek an occupation that is somewhat compatible with our talents and abilities. One person would never make an engineer, and another person who might make a dandy engineer would never make an artist, and so on.
CALLER: Okay. I was just a little bit apprehensive, because I was wondering, what kind of power, if you are a born again believer, which I am, could Satan have, and make everything go smoothly toward this other end?
HC: Satan has no power over you if you are a child of God. The Bible says you've been transferred out of his kingdom, or his dominion, into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, he is always there, harassing and trying to get us to fall into sin. On the outside he comes at us, with other gospels and with the temptations of friends, things we read, and so on. And so you have to be very careful who you listen to, because through this kind of activity Satan may be trying to entice you into something.
But insofar as entering into your mind, or having control over you, no, that's an impossibility once you are saved.
CALLER: But through friends and associates, and perhaps management, it could possibly be done. So that would be something to watch out for?
HC: Well, yes. In other words, you want to make sure that, but if management asks you to do something that is not sinful, then it's not Satan. Satan will always tempt into sin. And you have to be obedient to management. The Bible lays down very clear rules that servants are to obey their masters. And that also includes employee/employer relationships. You work for management, and as long as they don't ask you to do something sinful, you may not agree with what they ask you to do, you may not think it's wise, you may not think it's the most efficient thing to do, but if they're the management then you must be obedient to them as long as you work for them.
CALLER: Okay. Well, I certainly thank you very much.