Would God actually ask me to stay in work I genuinely do not like? Part of me thinks I am meant to endure it and part of me thinks that cannot be right.

“Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the LORD for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”

Jeremiah sent this letter to Judeans deported to Babylon who were expecting a quick rescue. Instead God told them to build houses, plant gardens and work for the good of the city that had taken them captive. The instruction was to live fully in a place they had not chosen and did not like, without ever pretending it was home forever.

“Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called.”

Paul was writing to new believers in Corinth who assumed that conversion should overturn everything, including their trade and their social position. His counsel is unglamorous: stay where you are for now and serve God there unless a genuine door opens. He is not forbidding change. He is refusing to let restlessness be mistaken for guidance.