Praying for the Holy Spirit’s leading

…asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding… (Col. 1:9)

This Week’s Prayer: Luke 3:21-22
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Vocational discernment is a central theme in our life and work at Calvin University. As our educational framework explains, we long for our students to learn:

  • God’s children respond when called—whether with the reluctance of Moses or the readiness of Mary
  • the lifelong practice of discerning and developing our talents and passions prepares us to respond with our gifts of knowledge, skills, virtues, and faith
  • the process of divine calling and human response is ongoing, complex, and unpredictable—but ultimately is shaped to God’s providence
  • God uses our learning experiences, our successes, and our failures to ready us for the expected and unexpected tasks to which God will call us
  • Though fallen, we praise God through our faithful actions, hopeful and confident that God uses us for his purposes.

Every day, hundreds of our students, staff, and alumni are activitely discerning their calling, choosing pathways and opportunities for service in neighborhoods, congregations, and also for particular jobs.

Every week, our human resources office is supporting offices and departments on campus that are searching for and welcoming new staff members.

Every month, hundreds of high school students and adult learners are discerning whether to apply or enroll at Calvin.

Every year, our faculty participate in search committees to find and call new colleagues, prospective board members discern whether to serve Calvin as a trustee, and hundreds of graduates take steps toward new positions or learning opportunities.

Every so often, we search for a new president.

On the occasion of our current presidential search, we pause to reflect on the practices of Bible reading and prayer that are an essential part of vocational discernment—practices that nourish and sustain us and help us learn to pay deep attention to how God may be leading us.

There is no one universal method that guarantees when or how we will sense God’s leading. But there are many Bible texts, prayers, and devotionally oriented songs and artworks that are especially fitting for any vocational discernment process—whether that process is relatively hidden from public view or is a high-profile university presidential search.

We invite you to join our presidential search team in praying through these texts in the days, weeks, and months ahead. We invite you not only to pray for our search team’s work of discernment and for candidates in their practices of discernment, but also for each and every member of our broader community who is making a vocational decision about a job, a church volunteer position, community service opportunity, family life, and more.

These resources hosted by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship will remain available after our search process concludes, for use by individuals, groups, and congregations.

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