Bold Pursuit

By Arika Hanks

Do you ever wonder what your purpose is?

Do you crave clarity on how to find and pursue your God-given calling?

Maybe you know what you are called to do, but are unsure of your next steps.

What if your calling is not this mystery you must solve in order to pursue, but that it is the exact pla

• Language: English
• Publisher: Palmetto Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781088049662

Arika Hanks

Arika Hanks is a multi-passionate entrepreneur who is on a mission to build and equip faithful leaders, as well as help people find their purpose and take action toward the life they were called to lead. She is a wife and mother, and currently resides in Jacksonville, Florida.

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

OBEDIENCE

YOU MIGHT HAVE PICKED UP THIS BOOK BECAUSE YOU are ready to run; hyped up on a dream and eager to get started. As much as it pains me to be the bearer of bad news (because trust me, that was me for so long, too), I’m going to start by saying wait. For the go-getters out there, this one’s for you: you do not need to make all of your dreams come to fruition right here, right now. Your focus needs to be on what the simple steps God has set before you today. Obedience was the hardest lesson I had to learn because it was the area of growth in my life that I resisted the most.

This wasn’t because I didn’t trust His timing or His plan for my life, but because I genuinely thought I was ready every time an ounce of emotion or excitement came over me, which happened to be a lot. I am a recovering idea-runner. If an idea sparked in my mind, I would take it and run with it, without hesitation. This typically led to me never finishing anything that I started, and left me burnt out the majority of the time. It was stressful and exhausting when I was in the thick of it; but, now I’m okay with that hardship because it brought me closer to God and, ultimately, here, to help all the other people out there like me, who don’t always realize that sometimes you need to slow down to speed up.

It’s about taking intentional steps, and sometimes those aren’t big ones. Obedience can look different in many ways, but the core of this quality, this discipline, as you’re chasing your God-given dreams is that His way is, and will always be, infinitely better than anything you can come up with on your own and His work through you is far greater than anything you can accomplish by yourself. Obedience is submitting to God’s will and His desire for your life while doing and using what skills He gave you. If you are someone who wants to boldly pursue the calling God has for you, you need to be obedient within the use of the gifts you’ve been given.

So what does this obedience look like in our daily lives? Well, if you are anything like I was, you probably feel a tug on your heart to do something big and impactful with your life. Or maybe you feel like you have a purpose, you just don’t know what it is or how to begin. You might think that once a certain opportunity (of any kind) comes along, that you can start walking towards your calling right then and there. However, your calling is not associated with the number of followers you have, the number of eyes on you, or any one specific moment or meeting, it is directly tied to your obedience. The more you stay in alignment with what God has placed in front of you, today, the more you can begin to sort out which opportunities you come across are worth pursuing.

As you say yes to God, He begins to guide you through the purpose He has for you. The good news is, He can use anyone, from any walk of life and in any circumstance. He isn’t looking for perfection, He just wants to know that you are willing. God doesn’t look at your ability, He looks at your availability. He looks inside, to your heart and mind. Yes, there may be times where what He’s called you to perform stirs up some fear or doubt inside of you, but I want you to remember this: God is responsible for the outcome, you are responsible for the obedience.

Being obedient means that you dedicate yourself to being available to what God is calling you to do, whatever it may be. Are you willing to say yes, even if it’s uncomfortable, unpopular, or uncharted territory? Will you show up even if you feel unqualified for the job God has called you to do? These questions, quite literally, changed my life, showing me that obedience is the only requirement to begin living the life God planned for me. The same goes for you, my friend. The lives God has planned for us will look as different as the people He calls upon to lead them, but overall it means letting go of our desire for control and trusting that He is in control. It will require you to step into the unknown at times, to press on through your fear and walk confidently in the direction of a destination you might not see clearly yet. Obedience was never meant to be easy, but scripture shows, time and again, that not only is obedience the right, it’s often the obvious, choice to make. Looking through the life of Abraham in the Bible, he demonstrates that despite the fear and discomfort attached to what God asked of him, his obedience to it would eventually lead to the blessings and promises He wanted to give Abraham. It is because of Abraham’s obedience that God used and blessed him. God promises that when we are surrendered and obedient to His calling on our life, He will guide, protect and bless us, too.

KEEP IT SIMPLE

Now, I don’t want you to hear what I’m not saying. I’m not saying that every crazy tug you feel to do something or go someplace or do something uncomfortable is God calling you to your purpose. For example, say you feel a tug to quit your job. Honestly speaking, is this tug a product of just disliking your current job or boss, or is it God calling you to something else? Do you feel passionate about another profession that you know could be a good fit for your skills and yet you feel scared to pursue that goal or opportunity out of fear of failure? In this situation, simple obedience could look like continuing to work your current job so that you can pay your bills, while slowly transitioning into the area you feel would be a better fit. In this way, you can honor the call you feel in your heart, while still doing what will provide for you in the meantime.

You might have a big dream or a clear vision for your life, but simplifying the single steps toward it is important, there is value in the dailies. Remember, Rome wasn’t built in a day. Have conversations with others, pray on it, maybe even set up an interview. Take those small steps forward without sending in your notice email with very little, if any, thought and planning. Take it from me, someone who used to emotionally send these messages and prematurely make decisions (although with the best intentions), doing so rarely helped the situation I was in. Those choices also caused a lot more confusion and setbacks than taking those small steps would have. I would find myself frustrated, thinking God was not giving me clarity, even when I’m being so obedient, I’d think, when really it was me rushing into situations that I thought were best. It is not always the transition itself that can lead to tougher, more complicated circumstances; sometimes it is our haste in transitioning to the path set before us that complicates things.

Maybe you find yourself in a similar situation right now. Perhaps you want to make a rash decision, or maybe you have already made the rash decision and you know it wasn’t the best one and now you want to know where to go next. Trust that God can, and will, use your poor choices for His good. I learned this valuable lesson right out of college. The moment I knew I was unhappy in my career and it was not where God wanted me, I quickly made the decision to quit. Within the span of a week, I had this realization, sent an email, had a meeting, submitted in my resignation, and even left work before those two weeks were up. I did not have an exit strategy and I had no idea what my next steps would look like. I just quit and said peace-out. Emotional, premature decision-making at its finest. At that time, the direction in my life was being determined based on my emotions rather than where God was leading me, and all it accomplished was more confusion, more stress, and more distance from God and His plans for me. Thankfully, through reading my Bible, God taught me that His plan for me is not about spur-of-the-moment decisions, but, rather slower, wiser decision making in which I still honor His commands, just more responsibly and less