Choosing a new career path isn’t easy when the road doesn’t seem clear.  If you are wondering if you should change careers and wondering how you’ll find the courage and wisdom to do it, this Choosing a New Career Path Prayer can provide focus and guidance.  Here’s a prayer strategy that helped me through my struggles when I quit my job and embarked on a career in a completely different field.

Start by asking God if your current job is where you’re supposed to be. Meditate on why you feel restless or unfulfilled.

It wasn’t that long ago that I found myself in the middle of a season of unknown and where I found myself wrestling every single day with that question about whether I was in the right job.  I moved to Georgia a little over four years ago (the short story is that I followed my family after my Dad got a job that required him to relocate from Oregon to Georgia… talk about culture shock!).  I started working in an outpatient pain center at a hospital doing medical records and new patient admissions, with aspirations of becoming a Patient Advocate (two years medical office experience needed).

I started nearing my two-year mark in the clinic and while I should have felt excited that I was nearing the point where I could start applying for the position I ultimately wanted, I really began feeling a sense of restlessness, like I wasn’t where I was meant to be.

Ask God to show you what activities are most fulfilling and which ones give you a sense of purpose in your life to see if they might be connected with a new career path or calling.

Along with working in the hospital, I had started coaching lacrosse at a local high school.  This year marks my third-year coaching for them! Now during this time of working at the hospital and coaching lacrosse, I’d gotten super involved in volunteering at my church.  I had gone from serving in children’s ministry to leading a high school small group.  I absolutely loved it.

I found a sense of purpose and fulfilment that I had never felt before.  It was from there that I began to realize why I felt so restless in my day job.

Ask God if it’s time for you to take a chance and see if there are any job opportunities in the field where you feel most fulfilled.

I took a chance and interviewed for an internship at my church and ended up finding myself being offered a nine-month intern position in the middle school ministry.  Fast forward almost a year and a half after accepting that intern position, I was still interning on the same team and in an absolute panic.  It was time to find a full time, paying position, that offered insurance.

Ask God if your self-doubts are holding you back from feeling qualified for something new.

Now, let me pause for a minute on my story.  A couple things you should know about me that will help make the rest of this story make sense. First, I just turned 26.  Second, I never would have imagined myself working in ministry.  I didn’t grow up a strong Christian. I made mistakes, a lot of them.  I really didn’t come to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ until I was 21, so I’m still relatively new in my journey with Him.

Ask God to help you pay attention to closed doors so you can start looking for open ones.

Alright, so back to the story.  I’m a year and a half into my internship, I’ve been applying to just about every open (full time) position within my church, including one on the team that I’d been interning for, but the answer I get from every single one is that I’m just “Not the right fit.” Ouch.

So here I am, I’ve left a full-time job, taken an internship, worked said internship for a year and a half, it’s November, I turn 26 in March, I need to have my own insurance before then (health reasons), and I can’t even get a position with the team I’ve been interning for.

Get real with God in prayer, letting him know your feelings, frustrations and discouragement.

This is where God and I really come to blows.  I got mad, and frankly, depressed.  I convinced myself that God had somehow placed me on a back burner.  I felt lost.  I had spent so much of my time serving God and others and yet He wasn’t showing up for me in what I felt was my “time of need.”

I remember one night in particular I was journaling and praying, trying to work through all of this, and I just got mad, and I let God know it.  I let Him know how angry I was, how hurt I was, how confused I was.  How could He not answer my prayers or give me some kind of guidance when all I’d done was try to follow where he was calling me?? (This was probably my first honest prayer to God through all of this).

Ask God to show you if you’ve been making a mistake by limiting your job search.

After that night of complete honestly and vulnerability with God I realized that while I had been following His calling into ministry, I hadn’t allowed him to choose where He was going to use me.  I had fallen in love with my church, for the wrong reasons, and because of that hadn’t allowed myself to be open to other churches.

The second that I opened the door to churches outside of what I thought I wanted, I finally started to see God’s hands at work.

Ask for God’s help as you embark on your dream job.

In the beginning of December, I interviewed for a position as the Director of Student Ministries at a United Methodist Church.  The day after Christmas I was offered the position.  I’m now working in that position and absolutely loving it.  I still feel like I skipped about 10 steps going from intern to director and sometimes I still wonder why I was trusted to be in this position, but everyday God reminds me in little ways why He put me right here.  While the road to get here may have been bumpy and unpleasant, I can easily look back and see now how the doors He closed led me right to the place I’m meant to be.

So, what do we do when God calls us somewhere but the path isn’t clear of easy?

We hold on, trust that He really does have us, and let Him guide us.  It’s not easy. AT ALL. But I can tell you first hand, it’s worth it.

Choosing a New Career Path Prayer

Heavenly Father, I pray that you would align my steps with yours.  Lord I pray that you would guide me down the path that you have chosen for me.

Lord with the path seems unclear or treacherous I pray that you would help me rely on you to navigate it.

Lord help me not lose faith in times of silence, because it is in that silence that you are working.

Lord help me be able to discern the difference between what is Your will for my life and what is merely my own desires.

Father I pray that you help me make the right decision even if it is not the easy decision.

Let me not lose faith when the waiting is long and let me trust that you are working in my life all the time.

Lord I pray that wherever you place me, in whatever career field, I use the gifts that you have given me to glorify you.

May I not seek the approval of others, but solely yours.  Lord I trust you with my future and I trust that your plans are far greater than mine could ever be.  I pray all these things in your Son, our Savior’s matchless name, Amen.

Other helpful articles

Praying When You Receive a “No” Answer from God

Prayer for a Job

Praying to Discover Your Gifts and Your Calling

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