This is part of my year-long series exploring human-centered alternatives to the spiritual promises in Oswald Chambers’ classic devotional My Utmost for His Highest. Today’s entry, “The Compelling Purpose of God,” promises that believers are “taken up into God’s purpose without any awareness” and that “God is taking us aside for his purpose all the time,” claiming that Christians should have “no aims of our own” because God has chosen them for a divine purpose that becomes clearer as they surrender their personal ambitions to His larger plan.
Here’s what trusting that God has a compelling purpose and has chosen believers for divine aims actually delivered:
“We go to Jerusalem to fulfill God’s purpose, not our own,” Pastor Thompson taught with spiritual authority. “In your Christian life, you have no aims of your own. You didn’t choose God—He chose you. You’re taken up into His purpose without awareness. The work you think you’re called to won’t satisfy because God is taking you aside for His larger purpose.”
Daniel had been feeling directionless after college, unsure about career choices and life direction. The promise that God had chosen him for a divine purpose and was taking him aside for a larger plan seemed like the spiritual guidance he needed to find meaning and direction without having to create his own life goals.
Daniel desperately wanted to believe that divine purpose would provide life direction and that surrendering personal ambitions would reveal God’s compelling plan for his future. Instead of exploring career interests, developing practical skills, seeking career counseling, or setting personal goals based on his values and abilities, he waited for divine purpose to become clear, trusting that God was taking him aside for a larger plan that would eventually satisfy his need for meaning and direction.
For months, Daniel avoided making concrete life decisions or pursuing specific opportunities, believing that having personal aims would interfere with God’s purpose and that divine choosing meant he should wait for spiritual direction rather than actively planning his future. When concerned friends suggested practical steps like career exploration, skill development, or even temporary work to gain experience, he declined, convinced that creating his own goals would prevent God from revealing His compelling purpose and larger plan.
But the promised divine purpose and choosing was purposelessness disguised as spiritual surrender.
Daniel’s attempts to surrender personal ambitions and wait for God’s purpose created additional confusion on top of post-graduation uncertainty. The compelling divine plan that was supposed to become clearer through spiritual surrender remained absent while opportunities passed and his direction became increasingly vague. The larger purpose that God was supposed to be revealing through taking him aside never materialized when he needed practical guidance for life decisions most.
Meanwhile, Daniel’s roommate Marcus approached post-graduation uncertainty with zero expectation that divine purpose would provide life direction. When Marcus faced similar career confusion after college, he immediately sought career counseling, explored internship opportunities, and focused entirely on evidence-based approaches to discovering his interests, values, and abilities through practical experience and professional guidance.
Marcus didn’t wait for God’s compelling purpose but treated career development as requiring personal exploration, skill building, and strategic planning based on his own interests and market realities. His direction came through career assessment tools, informational interviews, and gradually building professional experience through sustained practical work rather than trusting that divine choosing would reveal a larger purpose that satisfied deeper than personal goals.
When Daniel finally sought similar career guidance, he discovered that healthy life direction required understanding his own interests and abilities while actively pursuing opportunities rather than trusting that God had chosen him for a divine purpose that would become clear through spiritual surrender of personal ambitions.
Where was the compelling purpose that God was supposed to be revealing through taking him aside? Where was the divine choosing that should provide clearer direction than personal goal-setting and career planning?
The direction that actually helped came through accepting the necessity of personal exploration and focusing on evidence-based career development, not through believing that divine purpose would emerge through surrendering personal ambitions to God’s larger plan. The silence where God’s compelling purpose was supposed to be working revealed the truth: there was no divine choosing or larger purpose guiding life direction through spiritual surrender.
Only personal interests, market opportunities, and career development processes that required active exploration and practical planning to discover meaningful work and life direction.
Reflection Question: When has active career exploration and personal goal-setting been more effective than waiting for God’s compelling purpose to provide life direction?
This story is part of my upcoming book “The Undevoted: Daily Departures from Divine Dependence,” which offers 365 human-centered alternatives to the spiritual certainties in Chambers’ devotional. Each day explores how reason, community, and human resilience can address life’s challenges without requiring divine intervention.
God or Delusion? 